


You're My Heart

by pterawaters



Series: Broken [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Fist Fights, Getting Back Together, Infidelity, Investigations, Missing Persons, Monster Hunters, Multi, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23264956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Steve and Jonathan get caught making out, and the scare leads to them breaking up. Steve is hurt, but he tries to move on. He tries to date Nancy Wheeler and be normal and forget the boy he's actually in love with. Everything changes when he finds out that Jonathan's little brother has gone missing.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Series: Broken [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619830
Comments: 34
Kudos: 155





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I've done it! I've finished up the sequel to "Broken Moments"! I would definitely recommend reading the first fic in the series before starting this one.
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: anti-gay slurs, mentioned past child abuse

The summer after Steve got together with him, Jonathan started working. This meant Jonathan was busy a lot more often, which sucked, but Steve got it. Money at the Byers house was always tight, and Jonathan wanted to help his mother out. 

Just to have someone to hang out with, Steve fell back into spending time with Tommy and Carol. They were assholes, but he was used to them. For a while, they had Becky Parker hanging out with them, and she was okay. It was just, most of the time Tommy and Carol would slink off to go fuck and leave him to entertain Becky. Steve could tell that she expected him to want to get with her, and got confused when he deliberately didn't understand the "hints" she kept giving him. 

After a few weeks of putting up with her hints, he started to wonder how much of an asshole he could be to her before driving her away. It turned out it was a lot. Steve felt bad about it, sure he did, but when Becky stopped coming around, Steve could leave Tommy and Carol when they got horny for each other and pick Jonathan up from work. 

One night, he and Jonathan were parked way far out of the way by the quarry, making out and grinding against each other in the back seat of Steve's car, when there was a loud knocking at the window. Steve’s heart stopped. He and Jonathan scrambled apart and Steve knew it. This was how he died.

He rolled down the window, blinded by a flashlight in his face. 

“Harrington?” 

Oh, Jesus. It was Hopper. 

On the one hand, Steve was relieved it was Hopper. Hop liked him. On the other, he was definitely going to tell Joyce what was going on. 

“Uh, hey, Hopper,” Steve said, moving to try to block as much of the window as he could. “Coming up on curfew hours, huh?”

“Yeah,” Hopper said, a frown on his face. “Who’ve you got in there with you, Steve?”

“Nobody,” Steve insisted, even though he knew it wasn’t going to work.

Hopper huffed and went around to the other side of the car. He opened the door and shined his flashlight in. “Jonathan?”

“Hi, Hop,” Jonathan said, giving a self-conscious little wave. 

Steve got out of the car and spoke to Hopper over the roof, “We were just hanging out. Listening to music.”

“Uh-huh,” Hopper said, giving Steve and Jonathan both long looks, his flashlight in their faces. 

He pointed at Steve, “You, go home.” Then he pointed at Jonathan, “You, come with me.”

Steve couldn’t help it, he scrambled around the car and got in between Hopper and Jonathan. “What are you gonna do?”

“Cool it,” Hopper insisted, and Steve really wished he didn’t know just how hard Hopper could hit a punching bag. “I’m just gonna take him home. That’s it.”

“You’re _sure_?” Steve asked, terrified on Jonathan’s behalf. What if Hopper wasn’t as decent as he always seemed to be? What if he decided Jonathan needed to be taught a lesson?

“Steve,” Jonathan said, walking around him. “I’ll be fine. Go home.”

“But–”

“Go. Home.”

Steve gave a frustrated sigh and slammed the back passenger door of his car. He closed the other back door, opened the front one and got in. 

_ Shit _ .

~*~

The next day was his regular gym day, and Steve didn’t know if Hopper was going to tell Georgie or not, but he decided to play it cool, just in case. Two minutes into Steve’s warm-up jog, Hopper came into the gym, Jonathan in tow.

Surprised to see the two of them together at all – much less together _here_ – Steve stopped in front of them and asked, “What’s going on?”

Hopper ignored him, heading for Georgie, but Jonathan said flatly, “Apparently, I need to know how to defend myself.”

“Oh,” Steve said, watching Hop go give Georgie some charm. Was that… Did Hopper know about Steve all this time? Was that why he brought Steve here? It _was_ , wasn't it?

He found himself smiling.

“What?” Jonathan asked him, still all sullen and pissed. 

Steve shook his head, clapped Jonathan’s shoulder, and went back to his laps.

Jonathan joined him a few minutes later under Georgie’s watchful eye. “I... _hate_...this,” he said.

Steve laughed. “This is the easy part.” He put on a little more speed, grinning as Jonathan tried to keep up.

~*~

“So,” Steve asked as they drove away from downtown and toward both of their neighborhoods. “Did he tell your mom?”

Jonathan shrugged. “No, I don’t think so.”

“What did he say when he brought you home last night?”

“Just that I was out with some friends and needed a ride home.” He made a disgusted face. “She _kissed_ him as a thank you.”

“So…” Steve said, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Maybe Fort Byers? After dark tonight?”

Jonathan shifted down in his seat. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Steve asked, trying to divide his attention between Jonathan and the road. “Why maybe?”

“Last night…” Jonathan said, shaking his head. “If it had been anyone other than Hopper, we could be dead right now.”

“It’s not _that_ bad,” Steve insisted. 

“No?” Jonathan turned toward Steve. “Wanna tell me one of the major reasons why your dad is in jail right now?”

“He’s out on bail,” Steve said.

“Whatever. In any case, he broke your arm, Steve. You told me he did that because of your silly gay cartoon.” Jonathan clenched his jaw as they waited at the last stoplight before the turn to Jonathan’s neighborhood. “How do you think he would have reacted if he caught us kissing? He wouldn’t have just broken your arm.”

“He’s an _asshole_ ,” Steve insisted. “And he’s not even in the picture anymore. Why are you so scared?”

“ _My_ dad,” Jonathan cried. “He’s been poking around back in town the past couple weeks. I can’t risk it. I can’t put my mom through what he would do if he found out.”

Steve pulled up in front of Jonathan’s house. “So, what? You’re breaking up with me? Because you’re scared?” 

“You should be scared too,” Jonathan insisted. “We can’t just _pretend_ like we can have whatever we want. It doesn’t work that way. The world doesn’t work that way.”

“Get out,” Steve told Jonathan. His heart felt like it was being torn into tiny little pieces. “And have fun being alone, asshole.”

Jonathan got out of the car, saying, “Well, at least I’ll be alive.” Then he slammed the car door and stalked away toward the house. 

_ Fuck _ .

~*~

“What’s going on with you?” Carol asked when Steve bummed another one of her cigarettes as they waited in Steve's car for Tommy to come out of his house. “You’re pissier than normal.”

“And you’re a bitch, so we’re even,” Steve said, but he still lit her cigarette for her. 

“Oh, I know,” she said, grinning as she blew smoke out the window. “You got dumped, didn’t you? I could tell you were doing it with someone. Just never figured out who.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Steve told her, sucking more smoke into his lungs. “It’s over.” He mimed shooting himself in the heart.

Carol shrugged. “Find someone new. There’s bound to be someone at this party tonight.”

“Yeah, right,” Steve said, but he went to the party with Tommy and Carol anyway. He drove, which meant he couldn’t try his hand at the keg stand record, but he had a couple of shots and was feeling pretty mellow by the time he saw her. 

She had long hair, half pulled back in an intricate braid, and a soft pink sweater, and little breasts and the bluest eyes. She didn’t remind him at all of Jonathan. 

She also looked a little lost. 

“Hey,” he said, approaching her with a friendly smile. “Can I help you find something?”

“Um, yeah,” she said, still looking around. “I came here with my friend Ally, but now I can’t find her.”

“Maybe I can help you look,” he offered. “I’m Steve.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said, but when Steve gave her his hand, she took it. “I’m Nancy Wheeler.”

“Nice to meet you, Nancy Wheeler,” he said, giving her the smile that always used to work on Jonathan. She blushed and ducked her head and it made Steve feel good about himself for once.

Steve led her into the kitchen, “Are any of these people Ally?”

She looked around, and shook her head. 

“Okay! The search continues!”

Nancy laughed and squeezed his hand. Then she led the way to the next room. “Maybe in here.”

After a moment, Nancy shook her head again. “No.”

As they went down a hallway, Steve caught sight of a darkened room. Tugging Nancy into it he said, “Now this has got to be it, right?” He gestured to the empty room. “Somewhere in here?”

Nancy’s laugh was bright and her eyes shone in the light from the hallway. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“And you’re beautiful, Nancy Wheeler.”

She looked down shyly, and he was glad it was dark and he couldn’t see her blushing. That _definitely_ would have reminded him of Jonathan. 

Steve thought that was going to be the end of it, but Nancy pushed up onto her tiptoes and pressed a tiny kiss on the corner of his mouth. Oh, kissing. He _missed_ kissing.

Before he could kiss Nancy back, she dragged him out and toward another room. “Let’s keep looking.”

“Okay,” he agreed, ready to follow her just about anywhere.

Eventually, they did find Ally, and Nancy told Steve, “I need to go home now.”

“Can I call you sometime?” he asked.

She nodded and pulled a pen out of her little purse. Taking his hand in hers, she wrote her number on his palm, and then gave him one more tiny kiss. 

God, he was looking forward to teaching her how much better kissing could be.

“Bye, Steve Harrington.”

He smiled at her and raised his hand in a little wave. “Bye, Nancy Wheeler.”

~*~

The next time Steve went to the gym, Georgie chewed him out for skipping two weeks training. Jonathan wasn’t there. When Steve asked after him, Georgie just said, “He’s coming in on opposite days as you. Something about his work schedule.”

“Okay,” Steve said, picking up a rope and counting out the jumps as he made them. 

~*~

Making out with Nancy was different than making out with Jonathan. Steve thought it was mostly because they hadn’t gotten used to each other yet. Still, it was nice.

Steve didn’t tell Nancy about his dad’s court date, just that he was going to be out of school for a family thing. Testifying was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. Hopper and Joyce were both there. Fred was found guilty. 

His mother’s lawyer assured him the divorce suit would definitely go their way after Fred’s criminal conviction. Steve would be set up financially through college, at least.

Steve held Nancy’s hand in the school hallway and tried not to notice the way Jonathan always turned away when he saw them together.

~*~

A week after Halloween, Nancy called Steve and said, "I can't come out tonight. Will Byers went missing, so my mom is overreacting and putting me and my brother both on house arrest."

"Will is missing?" Steve asked her, feeling a little like he couldn't breathe.

Nancy took an extra second to respond. "Yeah. What, do you know him?"

"His brother and I … used to be friends," Steve told her. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

He barely waited for Nancy to say goodbye before he hung up and hurried out to his car. The drive to Jonathan's house was short – he was more used to walking it – and Steve had to push down the hurt in his heart so he could go up to the door and knock.

Joyce answered the door, thankfully, and Steve asked her, "How can I help?"

"Oh, Steve," she said, pulling him into a hug. It reminded him of having a broken arm. Looking over her shoulder into the house, Steve saw Jonathan at the coffee table, pictures spread out across it. He looked like he'd been crying. And then he was on his feet, coming toward Steve.

"Jonathan…" Steve tried to say, but Jonathan pushed him out of the house and onto the porch, closing the door behind him.

His hand twisted in the front of Steve's shirt, Jonathan demanded, "What the hell are you doing here?" 

Steve put his hand over Jonathan's. "I just…"

"Shouldn't you be with your _girlfriend_?"

"Jesus, fuck off," Steve cried, pushing Jonathan's hand away from him. "I'm here to help! I'm here for Will. Don't let our shit get in the way of that."

Steve watched Jonathan's face crumble from anger into grief. It gave Steve a sharp pain in his chest, and he couldn't even imagine how deeply Jonathan must have been hurting. Steve pulled Jonathan close and hugged him, and it was almost like the past few months hadn't happened.

Jonathan hugged him back, holding onto Steve for a long moment. His voice cracking, Jonathan said, "I should have been there for him. I…"

"Just tell me what you need, Jonathan," Steve insisted, jumping a little when thunder cracked through the sky above them. The rain started coming down harder, and Steve looked out at the woods around the Byers house. "I hope he's not stuck in this shit."

"Yeah," Jonathan said with a nod, wiping his face with one hand, keeping the other at Steve's back.

"Should we… I don't know," Steve tried to ask. "Should we go look?"

Jonathan shook his head. "There's already search parties all over the county. Mom and I…" Jonathan looked back into the house. "We're making a poster. One we can put up around town, you know?"

Steve didn't let himself think about how badly this could end. If anyone didn't deserve to go missing, it was Jonathan's funny little brother. He nodded, then he asked, "When was the last time either of you ate anything?"

Jonathan shrugged, and that was answer enough for Steve. He opened the front door and said, "I'm making you guys dinner. No arguments."

"Okay," Jonathan said, following Steve into the house.

~*~

"At least try to get a little bit of sleep," Steve insisted, pulling Jonathan with gentle hands into his bedroom. "For me?"

Jonathan sighed. "Steve. We broke up," he said, but he took the pajama pants Steve rooted out of his dresser and turned around when he changed into them.

"That doesn't matter," Steve insisted, stealing another pair of pajama pants and changing into them. 

After Steve laid down next to him, Jonathan mumbled, "It should matter."

"Why?" Steve asked him, watching Jonathan's face in profile. "I still love you. Do you still love me?"

"I never said I did in the first place," Jonathan insisted, then he turned to look at Steve. He whispered, "But yeah. I do."

It seemed unfair to feel this happy in the middle of a crisis that was making Jonathan so sad. Steve put his hand on Jonathan's face and smiled at him. When Jonathan rolled closer and kissed him, Steve let it happen. He kissed Jonathan back, holding him close and trying so hard to hold back, to not push too hard, to be as gentle as Jonathan needed him to be.

And then the phone rang.

~*~

Steve found Hopper's truck parked outside the police station. He parked his car across the street and ran into the station, calling as he got into the building, "Hopper! Hopper!"

Hopper leaned out of his office and cried, "Jesus Christ, kid! Where have you been? Your aunt is here."

Steve hurried to Hopper's office, and like he said, Aunt Lily was sitting there in his office, tissues in her hand. "What the hell?"

"Where have you been?" Lily asked. "I got home with dinner and you weren't there. No call! No note! This other boy is missing and…"

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "I was over at Jonathan's. Helping. I didn't even think anyone would miss me."

Hopper sighed and cuffed Steve on the shoulder. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"Oh, right. Joyce got a call, but now her phone is busted. She wants you to come."

Nodding, Hopper said to Steve, " _You_ , go home. I don't want to see you out of the house again until it's time for school, okay?"

"Okay," Steve said, following Aunt Lily when she left the station. He told her, "I'm sorry I made you worry. I guess I'm still not used to …" He shrugged. "People _caring_ , I guess."

"Well, get used to it," she said as they stopped next to Steve's car. "If you're not home before I get there, you're going to be grounded, mister."

"Yes, ma'am." 

Steve realized when he got home that he was still wearing Jonathan's pajama pants.

~*~

The only reason Steve drove to school in the morning was because his aunt followed him in her car to make sure he went. And then she waited in the parking lot until he went inside. He figured maybe he'd go to first period, and then skip and go back to Jonathan's house. After all, it wasn't like Jonathan was going to be in school today. And he needed Steve.

After first, Steve was at his locker, getting his jacket out when Nancy found him. "Steve?"

Shit. He'd totally forgotten about her, hadn't he? God, he was an asshole. "Uh, hi, Nancy."

"Where are you going?" she asked as he shrugged his jacket on. 

"I just…" Steve started to say, but then he saw Jonathan tacking a piece of paper up onto the announcement board near the side door of the school. "Sorry, excuse me," he said to Nancy, closing his locker and dodging kids in the hallway until he got to Jonathan.

Taking a look at the finished poster now that it was photocopied, Steve told Jonathan, "Hey, it came out alright."

"Yeah," Jonathan said, putting the last tack in the poster.

"Did you sleep at all?"

Before Jonathan could answer Steve's question, Nancy was standing on Jonathan's other side, saying, "Hey."

Jonathan blinked at her for a second before responding, "Hey."

Hell, this was anything but good.

Nancy gave Steve a glance, then looked over at where her friend Barbara was obviously waiting for her. She told Jonathan, "I just wanted to say, you know, I'm sorry…" She nodded at the poster. "About everything."

Jonathan nodded, giving Steve a look that was definitely asking for help.

"It sucks," Nancy added, and Steve could tell she was trying to be really nice. She had no idea she was hurting Jonathan worse by talking to him.

"Yeah," Jonathan said.

"Nance," Steve said, getting her attention. "Don't you have that Chem test?"

"Yeah," she said, wincing as the warning bell rang. "I should…" She took another look at Steve in his jacket and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go help put up posters and shit," Steve told her. "I'll talk to you later."

"But…" She looked back and forth between Steve and Jonathan.

Tugging on Jonathan's sleeve, Steve said, "C'mon. Let's go."

"Bye, Nancy," Jonathan said to her, and followed Steve from the school.

"What's the plan?" Steve asked him. "Put the posters up downtown first, or your neighborhood? Or should we split up? You got a stapler or something?"

"I'm going into the city," Jonathan told him. "Go look for Will at my dad's place."

Steve tugged on his arm. "If we're going on a road trip, let's take my car. It's more reliable than yours."

Jonathan thought about this for a second. "Only if I can bring my music."

"Deal."

~*~

"This is it," Jonathan said, pointing to one of the houses on the narrow Indianapolis street. It was small and a little run down, but there was a nicely-kept older muscle car parked in the driveway.

"You really think Will could have gotten all the way here on his own?"

"No," Jonathan said. "But like I said, Lonnie has been sniffing around back in Hawkins since this summer. Will might have come with Lonnie if he asked."

"Why, though?" Steve asked. "If Lonnie is as much of an asshole as you say he is, why would Will trust him?"

Jonathan sighed, rubbing his left arm. "Because I always protected Will from the worst of it. He never really … understood why I hate Lonnie so much." He looked up at the house and sighed. "I should go up there by myself."

"No fucking way," Steve said, cutting the engine and getting out of the car. Jonathan caught up to him, passing Steve and then pounding on the door.

There was music blaring from inside the house, and Steve wondered what kind of people were home during the day on a Tuesday. Jonathan's dad, apparently. 

Some chick in way too much eye makeup answered the door, looking at both of them before asking, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, is Lonnie around?" Jonathan asked her. 

She pointed over her shoulder, her gum smacking as she said, "Yeah, he's out back. What do you want?"

Jonathan didn't wait for her to invite him in. He just brushed past her, saying, "To look around."

Steve followed as Jonathan called out, "Will! Will?" and searched through the house.

A blur of motion from beside him had Steve pushing at it hard before it could get to Jonathan. The blur turned out to be Lonnie, who recovered and laughed and pushed at Jonathan again, making Jonathan call out, "Get off," and push him away harder.

Steve had his hands balled into fists.

"Damn, you've gotten stronger," Lonnie said, before nodding over at Steve. "Who's this kid?"

"Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" asked the girl from the front door.

Lonnie all but rolled his eyes, but he answered her. "Jonathan, Cynthia. Cynthia, this is Jonathan. My oldest."

"And this one?" Cynthia demanded, frowning at Steve.

"Fuck if I know. Probably his boyfriend or something." Steve held his breath, not wanting to give anything away. Lonnie pushed at Jonathan again and said, "Here I thought it was your little brother who was going to be the queer of the family."

Steve didn't even see Jonathan move until his fist was smashing Lonnie's face. When Cynthia lunged for Jonathan, Steve grabbed her around the middle and held her back. 

"Where the fuck is he?" Jonathan cried as Lonnie stood back up holding his jaw.

Lonnie ran his tongue over his teeth, asking, "Who taught you how to punch like that?"

"Get off me!" Cynthia cried, pushing Steve's arms until he let her go.

"Where is Will?" Jonathan demanded again. 

Lonnie laughed a little and said, "C'mon out back. I've got something to show you."

Jonathan gave his father a long look, then glanced at Steve before following Lonnie out the back door. There was an even nicer muscle car sitting in the lawn back there, and Lonnie pointed to it. 

"Take a look at this beaut. Should've seen it when I got it. Took me a year, but it's almost done."

Jonathan went around the car to the trunk, opening it and looking inside before closing it again.

"Really?" Lonnie asked Jonathan, sparing a quick look for Steve. "You wanna look up my ass, too? He's not here and he never has been."

"Then why didn't you call mom back?" Jonathan asked him, stepping closer to his father. The tension between them made Steve jumpy, ready to get into the fight when Jonathan needed him. 

"I don't know," Lonnie said with a shrug. "I just assumed she forgot where he was."

Steve muttered, "Asshole!" before he could stop himself.

"And just who are you, anyway?" Lonnie said, taking a step toward Steve. "Why do you care so much about some stupid little kid? You know, Will was never very good at taking care of himself in the first place. I'm not surprised he got lost."

"Jesus," Steve sneered. "How can you hate your own kid so much?"

"This isn't some joke, alright?" Jonathan insisted, getting in between Steve and Lonnie. "There are search parties. Reporters…"

"Hopper's not still chief, is he?" Lonnie asked, with a disdainful scoff.

"Yeah, he is!" Steve insisted, itching to hit this bastard and make him eat his words.

Shaking his head, Lonnie said, "Tell your mother she's got to get you out of that hellhole. Come out here to the city. People are more real here, you know?"

"What the fuck does that mean?" Steve asked, but Lonnie just ignored him.

He looked Jonathan right in the eye and said, "Then I could see you more."

Jonathan scoffed and took a poster out of his bag.

"What, you think I don't want to see you?"

"I _know_ you don't," Jonathan insisted. He pressed the poster against Lonnie's chest. "In case you forgot what he looks like."

"You sound like your mother," Lonnie said as Jonathan grabbed Steve's arm and pulled him toward the street. Lonnie called out to them. "Does she even know you're here?"

Jonathan flipped off his father over his shoulder. 

"Oh great!" Lonnie said, following them around the house. "So one kid goes missing, and the other runs wild. Did she even _try_ to keep you from becoming a faggot?" He scoffed. "Some real fine parenting there!"

Steve turned back, ready to smash his face in, but Jonathan's grip on his arm was iron-tight. "He's not worth it. Come on."

Lonnie followed them to the street. "Look, all I'm saying is, maybe I'm not the asshole, alright?"

"Sure sound like an asshole to me!" Steve yelled to him, but he unlocked the car and got in the driver's seat. 

"Let's get out of here," Jonathan insisted, closing his door and buckling his seatbelt. 

Steve pulled out into the street, wincing when Lonnie slapped the roof of his car, and speeding away. He tried to control his breathing, to calm down as they put some distance between them and Lonnie, but he was having a hard time of it. Jonathan, too, seemed more riled up than ever.

"You okay?" Steve asked him, not really sure where to go, but making a turn onto a through street and following it anyway.

"I can't believe he could tell," Jonathan said softly. "You and me, I mean."

"Maybe I shouldn't have come," Steve offered, seeing a sign for the highway and making another turn. "I'm sorry it turned to shit."

Jonathan shook his head and said, "No. It's not your fault. It always turns to shit around him. He knows exactly what to say to hurt the people around him."

"Asshole."

"Yeah."

Steve got onto the road that led back to Hawkins. "We'll find Will, babe. We're gonna find him."

Jonathan nodded sadly and stared out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

Steve returned to the school when they got back to Hawkins so Jonathan could pick up his car. "I'll stop off at home so my aunt doesn't worry," Steve told him. "Then I'll come with to help look so you're not out in those woods alone."

"Sure," Jonathan said, looking over at Steve and reaching for him, squeezing his hand. "Would you even be talking to me if my brother hadn't gone missing?"

"If you'd asked, I would," Steve insisted. "I'm not the one who got scared."

Jonathan sighed, closing his eyes and nodding. When he opened them, he focused on something outside the window and frowned. Steve followed his line of sight and saw Nancy hurrying over to the car, Barb trailing along behind her. "Your girlfriend is coming."

"I'll break up with her," Steve insisted. "Just tell me you want me back, and I'll do it."

Jonathan pressed his lips together and grabbed the door handle. "I'll see you later."

"Later," Steve replied, watching as Jonathan got out of the car and crossed the parking lot to get into his car. 

Steve got out of his car, standing next to it while he waited for Nancy to get over to him. "Steve Harrington, you've been out of school all day!" she cried.

"There was shit to do," Steve told her. "Nance, look, I–"

"We're coming with you tonight," Nancy said, glancing back at Barb, who stopped a few feet away.

Completely confused, Steve asked, "What? Coming with where?"

"To look for Will," Nancy explained, like it should have been obvious. "He's one of my little brother's best friends. I can't just _not_ help you look for him. Not when I can tell how much you care."

_ You don't want to know why I care so much _ , he thought, but then he figured Nancy and Barb were both pretty smart. Maybe they could help find Will faster than he and Jonathan could on their own.

"I've gotta stop at my house," Steve told them. "But you can get in."

Nancy hopped into the passenger seat, but Barb was slower to follow her. Nancy hopped back out again, having an argument with her friend and Steve started to get impatient.

He called out Nancy's open door, "Are you guys coming or not?"

Barb sighed and gave in, and they both got into the car.

As they drove, Nancy looked at him a few times. Then she said, "I wouldn't have thought you and Jonathan Byers were friends. You don't seem like you would have much in common."

Steve shrugged and kept his eyes on the road. "Turns out we really do."

"Like what?"

"Our dads are both major assholes," Steve told them, turning toward his neighborhood.

"It's true, then?" Barb asked from the back seat.

Looking at her in the rearview, Steve asked her, "What's true?"

"Your dad went to jail because he broke your arm," Barb replied, keeping her eyes focused on his face for an uncomfortably long time. Wow, that took some serious balls.

Yeah, okay. Steve could see now why Nancy and Barb were friends. They had that don’t back down thing in common.

Licking his lips, Steve admitted, "It's true. That and a whole bunch of other shit he did. He might get out in a year or two."

"So then, Jonathan's dad…" Nancy said, drawing her own conclusions. "Do you think he had anything to do with Will going missing?"

Steve shrugged, making the turn into his neighborhood. "We went over to his dad's place in Indianapolis today, during school. We tried to find that out. He's a complete douchebag, but we didn't find Will there."

From the back, Barb said, "You're not the guy I thought you were."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" he asked her.

"Yeah, it is," she said, sticking her chin out at him.

Nancy laughed, and that's when Steve realized that Barb's sense of humor was a lot like Jonathan's.

"Thanks," he told her. "You're not quite the stick-in-the-mud nerd I thought you were."

Barb snorted back at him. Steve wondered if Nancy would still want to be friends after he broke up with her, because she and Barb were definitely better people to hang out with than Tommy and Carol.

~*~

Steve pulled up behind Jonathan's car on Kerley Boulevard. "I didn't tell him I was bringing you guys," Steve told Nancy and Barb. "So, like, don't be surprised if he gets pissy about it. He really does need our help."

"Let's go," Nancy said, bringing one of the flashlights Steve had unearthed from his garage. He had another, and Barb had the last one.

Steve got out of the car and went up to Jonathan's, finding it empty. He called out, "Jonathan! Hey, Jonathan! Where are you?"

"Just down here," Jonathan called back from behind the crime scene tape. 

Steve led the way down into the woods, following the sound of Jonathan's camera clicking and the light of his flash. "What are you doing?" he asked as he got closer.

Jonathan stood up straight, eyes wide and looking behind Steve. "Did you bring someone with you?"

Steve shined his flashlight back at Nancy and Barb. "They made me bring them with," he insisted to Jonathan, who punched Steve's arm, but otherwise didn't argue about it.

"Ow," Steve told him, rubbing his arm and following Jonathan into the woods. "What are you taking pictures of?"

"I don't know," Jonathan said. "Anything. Everything. Trying to find out what happened to him."

"Your guys’ house is back this way, right?" Nancy asked, taking the lead as they picked their way through the forest. "Do you think he was trying to get home?"

"These woods go a lot of places," Barb said from behind Steve. "How are we going to find out which way he went?"

"By looking, obviously," Steve told her.

"Ha, ha," Barb said flatly, and Steve smiled as he looked at everything he could shine his flashlight on. He really was starting to get the hang of Barb's sense of humor. 

"Could he have left footprints anywhere?"

"It rained pretty hard last night," Nancy called back at them. "And he's a little kid. I doubt he was heavy enough to leave footprints that could have outlasted it."

Barb was farther away behind Steve when she called out, "What about candy wrappers? Does he like Milky Way?"

"Yeah," Jonathan said, turning around and brushing past Steve to get back to where Barb was.

Steve followed, with Nancy on his heels, and then there was a slipping sound, and Barb made a small gasp, like she was in pain. 

"What happened?" Steve asked, catching up to where Jonathan was helping Barb back up to her feet.

"It was just slick," she said, "and I fell."

Nancy turned her flashlight on where Barb was holding her hand, illuminating bright red blood. "Shit, Barb! You're hurt!"

"I'm okay," she insisted, holding her arm close to her chest. Jonathan turned and took a few pictures of the candy wrapper. "It's really not that bad."

"I've got a first aid kit in the trunk of my car," Jonathan said, looking up from his camera. "Maybe we should turn back?"

"Just lend me the keys," Barb said, holding out her uninjured hand. "I'll get this fixed up and wait for you guys there."

"Are you sure?" Nancy asked. "Maybe I should come back with you."

"No," Barb said. "I found that candy wrapper. You guys have to keep looking." She gave Nancy a smile. "We're not that far into the woods. I'll be fine."

"Okay," Nancy nodded and Jonathan gave Barb his car keys. "Be careful."

"You, too."

The three of them watched Barb walk back up the path toward the road. Steve’s flashlight flickered, but when he hit it a few times, it stopped and shone brightly.

Then Jonathan took another picture and said, "If he started over there, and dropped something here…" He pointed through the woods. "Maybe he was trying to get to your house."

"Why would he go to Steve's house?" 

"I told him I was still hanging out with Steve," Jonathan said, pressing his lips into a thin frown and brushing past Steve.

"Why?" Steve asked him. 

Jonathan huffed a few times, but he didn't respond.

"Why, Jonathan?"

"Because!" he cried, "I didn't want my little brother, who looks up to me, knowing that I'd screwed things up with my _only_ friend. He'd think I was a loser, or a freak."

"But you _are_ a freak," Steve insisted, making sure to keep a straight face until Jonathan cracked and laughed. It was a small, sad laugh, but it was something, anyway.

"Did you guys hear that?" Nancy asked, and Steve had almost forgotten she was there.

"Hear what?" Jonathan asked her. 

Nancy looked more than a little scared in the soft light from their flashlights. "I think it was Barb. I think I heard her scream."

Steve shared a look with Jonathan, and then they were off, running back through the woods toward the car. At one point, Steve almost tripped, his foot catching on a root, but Jonathan and Nancy both kept him on his feet. It couldn't have been more than two or three minutes before they got back to the car.

They found Jonathan's trunk open, his keys still in the lock. The light in the trunk flickered a few times, but it came back on, steady. 

Barb was nowhere to be seen.

"Barb!" Nancy called out, running along the road, shining her flashlight into the trees. "Barb!"

Steve followed after her. Jonathan went the other direction. "Barb?"

"Barb?"

"Barbara, where'd you go?"

When they reconvened back at the cars a few minutes later, Jonathan told Steve, "This really isn't good."

"No," Steve agreed. "It's not." He closed the trunk on Jonathan's car and handed Jonathan the keys. "Let's all go tell Hopper what happened."

"What if Barb comes back?" Nancy asked.

Steve shivered and looked around. "We'll be quick, but I'm not leaving either of you out here alone."

"Okay," Jonathan said, and they both looked at Nancy for a long moment before she nodded. 

"Okay. But quick. Like you said."

~*~

“What were you kids even doing out here?” Hopper asked, walking around Jonathan’s car. “Can’t you see the crime scene tape?”

“We were just trying to help,” Steve insisted, trying not to feel too weird about being sandwiched between his girlfriend and his ex-boyfriend as they all leaned against the hood of Steve’s car. 

Hopper paused, his flashlight pointed at the ground. Crouching to get a closer look, he said, “There’s blood here.”

“She fell and hurt herself in the woods,” Nancy said. “That’s why she came back to the car. To get bandaged up.”

“Do you think someone took her?” Jonathan asked. 

Steve added, “Same person who took Will, maybe?”

Hopper gave an annoyed huff. He came over and held his hand out toward Jonathan. “Give me your keys.”

“Why?” Jonathan asked, even as he handed them over. 

“Your car is a crime scene,” Hopper explained. “And also, you’re grounded.”

“I’m _grounded_?” Jonathan cried. “You can’t do that!”

“Well, your mom is a little busy these days, and someone has to do it!” Hopper yelled back. “I won’t have something happening to you. Especially not because you were too busy trying to find Will to think of your own safety. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said, sullenly.

“Good.” Hopper put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Can I trust you to make sure he goes home, and stays there?”

“Sure,” Steve said. “If you run interference with my Aunt. She’s expecting me back before ten.”

“I will call her.” Hop gestured toward Nancy. “And make sure your friend gets home safe, too.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve told him, shooing the others back into the car.

“Fuck,” he said when they were all seated and the doors were closed. “Nancy, I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s my fault,” she said from the back seat. “I made you bring me with. I made Barb come with me. This is my fault.”

“I’m the one who decided to come out here tonight,” Jonathan said. 

“So, great. It’s everyone’s fault,” Steve told the others. He drove in the direction of Nancy’s house. 

After he dropped her off, and was driving away, Steve asked, “How much of an asshole would I be to break up with her the day after her best friend went missing?”

“Jesus Christ,” Jonathan said with a sigh. “Why did you even start dating her?”

“It was better than being alone,” Steve said. 

“No, but I mean…” Jonathan gave a frustrated huff. “Why _her_ specifically?”

“I don’t know,” Steve answered him truthfully. “I met Nancy at a party. She was funny and nice.”

“Not to get back at me?”

“To get back at you?” Steve frowned and shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“Oh.” Jonathan said shortly. “I thought everyone knew.”

“Knew what?”

Jonathan told him, “That I used to have a crush on her. In eighth grade. I was stupid and told Jordan Smith about it, thinking he was my friend. He told _everyone_. It was so embarrassing.”

“Want me to punch him for you?” Steve asked. “I’m getting kind of good.”

“Not according to Georgie,” Jonathan said, laughing a little when Steve gave him an offended look.

But then they were at Jonathan’s house and reality set in. Will was missing. So was Barb. They could both be dead. 

~*~

Steve laid next to Jonathan in his bed, holding his hands and watching his face as he tried to fall asleep.

“I can feel you looking at me,” Jonathan said. 

“Sorry,” Steve told him, but he wasn’t. “I wish I could make you feel better.”

Jonathan opened his eyes and looked at Steve for a long moment. When he spoke, it was in a whisper. “You love me?”

“Yeah, I do,” Steve whispered back.

Jonathan took his hand out from between Steve’s and put it on Steve’s face. Then he pushed his hand back farther and hooked it around the back of Steve’s neck, pulling him closer.

Steve kissed Jonathan, and it felt right. It felt like coming home. Jonathan escalated the kiss right away, licking into Steve’s mouth and getting his hand under Steve’s shirt.

Steve gasped and followed Jonathan’s lead.

~*~

When Steve woke up, it was light out and Jonathan wasn’t in bed anymore. He found his shirt from the night before and pulled it on, then he found his pants. 

He was just buttoning his jeans when Jonathan came into the room. “Hey, my mom’s not doing very well,” he said. “Can you give me a ride to school? I want to develop the pictures from last night. See if there’s anything on them.”

“Sure,” Steve said, gathering up the rest of his things. When he passed the kitchen, Joyce was sitting there, staring off into space, a plate of food sitting untouched in front of her. “Bye, Mrs. Byers. Thanks for letting me stay over.”

“Bye, Steve.”

He very definitely did not mention the fact that he and Jonathan had rounded third base the night before while making out and trying to be as quiet as possible. Didn’t seem like something she needed to know. Ever.

Jonathan put a breakfast sandwich into Steve’s hand and said, “Come on. You’re going to be late for class.”

“Screw class,” Steve said, taking a bite of the sandwich. “I’m helping you.”

“Look, if you get in trouble, you’re gonna get grounded, and then Hop is gonna remind my mom that he tried to ground me and neither one of us is going to be able to look for Will, alright?”

“So you just want me to go to class like nothing happened?” Steve asked, following when Jonathan got into the car. “Like we didn’t lose Barb out in the woods?”

“Let’s just… develop the pictures,” Jonathan said, putting on his seat belt. “And then decide what to do from there.”

“Fine,” Steve said with a sigh. As they drove toward the school, Steve said, “But hey. Let me know if you need me to cheer you up some more.” He grinned over at Jonathan, making him laugh a little. 

Then Jonathan frowned. “Nancy thinks you’re still dating her.”

“Shit,” Steve said as he remembered again. “Fuck, what do I tell her? Sorry, I got back together with my ex? She’ll want to know who you are.”

“Just tell her there’s too much going on right now, or something,” Jonathan said. “I don’t know! I’ve never dated a girl before!”

“Well, I’ve never broken up with anyone before,” Steve insisted. “I’ve only been broken up _with_.”

Jonathan looked away out the window and it took a silent minute before he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t actually mean to break up with you.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

Steve made a frustrated noise. “How the hell else was I supposed to take it when you didn’t want to spend time together anymore?”

“Yeah, I realize that _now_ ,” Jonathan insisted. 

Steve shook his head and bit back on the urge to call Jonathan an idiot. It wouldn’t make things any better. Instead, he told Jonathan, “Well, I’m glad we figured it out.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said softly. “Me too.”

~*~

Nancy accosted them as soon as they came in the school door. “Has there been any news?”

“No,” Steve insisted. “Nothing.”

Nancy pressed her lips together, clenched her jaw and nodded. Then she marched away. 

“Maybe you won’t have to break up with her,” Jonathan murmured.

“You really used to have a crush on her?” Steve replied, watching Jonathan’s cheeks go red. 

“Shut up. I’m going to the darkroom.”

“Fine. See you later.”

~*~

During lunch, Steve couldn’t find Nancy or Jonathan. He sat with his basketball team buddies and didn’t even pretend to care about whatever bullshit they were talking about. 

He didn’t see either one of them after school, either. Steve almost skipped basketball practice, except Coach found him in the hallway and chewed him out about missing the day before. 

When Steve got home, he checked in with his aunt, changed his clothes, and told her he was going over to Jonathan’s. Yes, straight there. 

It was dark out already, and the first thing Steve noticed when he went down the narrow road into Jonathan’s neighborhood was the flashing red and blue police lights. Oh, this couldn’t be good. 

When he got to the house, Hopper’s truck was there, along with two other cop cars. Steve ran into the house, and the first thing he saw was Jonathan and his mom holding each other on the couch and crying. The second thing he noticed was Hopper, looking grim. The third thing he noticed were the lights strung up and the black letters painted on the living room wall.

“What…?” Steve tried to ask Hopper, but he couldn’t quite get out the words to encompass his confusion about everything going on.

Hopper leaned close and put his arm around Steve’s shoulders. “State trooper found Will’s body in the quarry. He’s gone, Steve.”

Steve couldn’t say he knew Will all that well, but he’d always been nice to Steve. The realization that he wasn’t going to be around anymore gave Steve a sharp pain in his chest. The ache got worse when he thought about how Jonathan and Joyce must be feeling.

Steve nodded. “Oh.” 

He went over to Jonathan and sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. What else could he do?

~*~

Steve didn’t get much sleep, spending the night holding Jonathan while he cried. In the morning, Hopper gave him a cup of coffee, looked Steve dead in the eyes, and said, “Go to school.”

“But…” Steve said, gesturing to where Jonathan and Joyce were both sitting at the kitchen table, leaning on each other. 

“I will take care of them. Go. To. School.” Hopper frowned at him until Steve relented. 

“Okay, okay. I’m going.” He drank the coffee, wincing at the bitter taste, before putting his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “I’ll see you after school.”

Jonathan stood up and wrapped his arms around the back of Steve’s neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Steve hugged him back, brushing Jonathan’s hair out of his eyes as they separated. 

Then Jonathan muttered, “What the hell,” and pressed a soft kiss to Steve’s mouth. Right there. In front of Hopper and Joyce.

“Um, okay,” Steve said with a nervous laugh. “See you later.”

“Later,” Jonathan agreed. 

Steve couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with either of the adults in the room, so he got the hell out of there and drove to school. He ended up inside the building ten minutes early, and realizing that he had a homework assignment due that he hadn’t even started. Before he could fill in any of the answers, Nancy came up to him with tears in her eyes. 

“You heard?” Steve asked, shoving everything back into his backpack.

Nancy nodded. “My brother was there when they pulled his body out of the water.” She gave a little sob, covering her face with her hand. After a minute, she pulled herself together and said, “Someone moved Barb’s car to the bus station. They’re trying to make it look like she ran away.”

“Who’s trying to make it look like that?” Steve asked her.

Nancy shrugged. The warning bell rang, but she ignored it, rubbing her arm with her hand. “I went back to the woods yesterday afternoon,” she admitted.

“ _What_?” Steve asked, lowering his voice when he got a funny look from Josh Warner. “Why would you do that?”

Frowning at him, Nancy said, “My friend is lost. Something terrible happened to her, I know it! And everyone is distracted because they found Will, and no one is listening to _me_!” Her voice got thick and her eyes went shiny with tears that she wiped away before they could fall.

“Hey,” Steve said, pulling her into a hug. “I’m listening.”

Nancy nodded, her forehead pressed against his chest. “I saw something out there.”

“Wait, what?” Steve asked her. “Some clue?”

Nancy pulled away from him, shaking her head. “Something alive. I don't… I don't know what it was. A weird … bear or something.” She looked up at Steve, “Has Jonathan developed those pictures he took that night? Maybe there’s something in them that could help us find her.”

“He developed them, but I don’t know if there's anything there,” Steve said. “I only saw him last night after he got the news. Pictures weren’t really on his mind.”

“Can we, I don’t know…?” Nancy asked. “Go and see?”

Surprised, Steve asked, “You want to skip class?”

“I want to find Barb!” she insisted. “What if it was _your_ best friend who was missing, Steve? What if Jonathan had been taken that night? Wouldn’t you do everything you could to find him?”

Feeling weak at the thought of losing Jonathan, Steve nodded. “We could go over there. See if he has the pictures.”

“Let’s go,” Nancy said, running back across the hallway to her locker and shoving her books inside. She pulled out her coat and her purse. “Come on.”

Steve followed Nancy out of the school, and led her toward his car. As she closed her door, Steve said, “I recognize that this is _so_ not the time, but I can’t date you anymore. I got back together with my ex.”

Nancy furrowed her brow at him and pursed her lips. “You’re right. It’s not the time. Let’s go.”

Steve nodded and started the engine. 

They made it five blocks before Nancy asked, “Which ex? Sheila?”

Steve shook his head. “You _really_ don’t want to know.”

Nancy fell silent for a few minutes, but eventually she said, “It’s Jonathan, isn’t it?”

Steve sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have gone out with you while I still had feelings for him. But I was…” He sighed again. “Trying to be normal or something. You deserve better than that.”

“Thank you for saying so,” she said, taking a shaky breath. She laughed a little. “You know, two years ago, I heard a rumor that Jonathan liked me. I guess it was just kids trying to make fun of him or something.”

Steve made a disbelieving noise. When Nancy gave him a questioning look, Steve said, “He told me the rumor was true. He did used to like you.” Steve scoffed a little. “Asked me if I started dating you to get back at him for dumping me.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Nancy said with a little smile. “Steve Harrington got dumped by _Jonathan Byers_? What?”

Wincing, Steve asked her, “You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”

“No,” Nancy said, shaking her head vehemently. “Your secret is safe.”

“Thank you.” He pulled up in front of the Byers house. The cars were all gone, even Jonathan's. “Shit, they’re all at the morgue, aren’t they?”

Nancy pouted. “Can we go inside anyway?”

Before Steve could stop to think, his mouth was already telling her, “Well, yeah. They never lock the back door.”

Nancy said, “Let’s go,” and got out of the car.

What was Steve going to do? Let her break into the house on her own? When she didn’t even know where to look? He cursed and got out of the car. 

By the time he caught up to Nancy, she was already opening the back door and slipping inside. Steve followed her, saying, “Come on. If he printed the pictures, they’re probably in his room.”

He led the way through the kitchen and back through the hallway to Jonathan’s room. Steve went straight to the desk, flipping through the giant stack of photos Jonathan had amassed there. None of them looked like they’d been taken in the woods at night. 

Nancy asked, “Isn’t that the shirt you were wearing the other day?” And when Steve looked over, she had the toe of her shoe on said shirt. 

“Yeah,” he said, moving over to the bookshelf. The first folder he pulled out had photos, but they were mostly of birds flying around the old St. Mark’s bell tower. Steve smiled and shook his head, putting the folder back and moving onto the next one.

“What about these?” Nancy said, pointing to Jonathan’s backpack on the floor. Its contents were spilled, with some of them going under the bed. There were photos in the mix along with his school things, so Steve ducked down and scooped everything he could reach out from under the bed.

“Your boyfriend is kind of a slob,” Nancy said, but then her eyes landed on something and she coughed and looked away.

Wondering what could have provoked that reaction, Steve looked down at the pile. There, among the other things he’d scooped out from under the bed, was a box of condoms.

Steve rolled his eyes and told Nancy, “Don’t get too excited. They’re unopened.” He shoved the box back under the bed and gathered up the photographs. 

“Yeah, these look like them,” Steve said, sitting on the bed. Nancy sat next to him and took each of the pictures as Steve looked at them and then passed them over. 

“Wait,” Nancy said when she was holding one that showed the trail through the woods and Barb’s back. “What’s that?”

Nancy stood up and went over to Jonathan’s desk, turning on his little lamp and putting the photo under it. She pointed to something between two straight tree trunks. “What _is_ that?”

“I don’t know,” Steve said, squinting at it. “It looks like another tree.”

“No, it looks like the thing I saw out there yesterday,” Nancy insisted. “It was right there next to us while we were looking for Will.”

She shivered, and Steve found himself pulling her into a hug. “It could have followed Barb when she left on her own.”

Nancy nodded, a small sob escaping her as she pressed in closer to him. Then she suddenly took a sharp breath and stepped back. “Sorry,” she said. “I forgot.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he insisted, giving her another hug. She looked like she needed it. 

When she sighed and pulled herself back together, she picked up the photo again. “Could Jonathan make this part of the picture bigger? I have to know what this is.”

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “He’s done a lot of the photography stuff in the time since we broke up.”

“When was that?” Nancy asked carefully. 

Steve shrugged, wrapping his arms around himself. “Over the summer.”

Nancy nodded. “How long were you together?”

“Since I broke my arm. Winter.” Steve picked up Jonathan’s backpack and rooted around in it for the negatives that had to go with the pictures. He found a few closed film canisters, so he decided to bring all of them, and the pictures themselves, along with to go find Jonathan.

“So you dated for what? Six months? That was awhile,” Nancy said. “Especially for a high school relationship.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve said, picking up Jonathan’s backpack and putting it over his shoulder. “Let’s go find him.”

“Okay,” Nancy said, following Steve from the house and back to his car. Before they got in, Joyce's car pulled up. She got out, several boxes in her arms, and didn't even say hello as she went into the house. 

Concerned, Steve shot Nancy a look, and then followed Joyce back into the house. "What's going on?" he asked her as she started pulling Christmas lights out of the boxes. "Mrs. Byers?"

"That _thing_ at the morgue isn't Will," she said, pulling more of the string of lights out of the box. Then she pointed at the lights that were already up across the wall. "He's been talking to me through the lights. And last night…" She pointed at the front wall. "Last night something came out of the wall."

"Came out of the…" Steve said, looking at the wall. It looked normal, like it always had. The rest of the room was a wreck, but the wall was fine. "What came out of it?"

Joyce shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. "I don't know. It was… it looked like it didn't have a–a _face_."

Nancy gasped and when Steve turned to look at her, she came over to him and pulled the backpack off his back. She set it on the coffee table and opened it, pulling out the picture she'd been interested in earlier. "Is this it?" Nancy asked Joyce, showing her the picture.

Joyce took it and looked at it, nervously licking her lips and nodding. "Yeah. That's what I saw."

"We think it got Barb, too," Nancy told her. Her voice soft, Nancy said, “I saw it out in the woods yesterday afternoon.”

“You saw it?” Joyce said, giving Nancy an intense look until she nodded. “I knew I wasn’t crazy!”

“We thought maybe Jonathan could make this part of the picture bigger,” Steve said. “Do you know where he is?”

“Yeah,” she said, an unhappy look on her face. “He’s at the funeral home, planning a funeral for that _thing_ that’s not my son.”

Steve nodded. “Should we wait? Until he’s done?”

Joyce shook her head and clasped one of Steve’s hands. “No, you show this to Jonathan. Tell him it’s the same thing I saw. Tell him Will is still alive!”

“You don’t want to come with us?” Nancy asked her gently.

Shaking her head again, Joyce said, “No. I need to be here. For Will. I need to help him get home.”

“Okay,” Steve said, putting the photos back in Jonathan’s bag. He reached his hand out toward Nancy. “Let’s go.”

After they got in the car, Nancy said, “She doesn’t seem like she’s doing very well.”

“Yeah,” Steve said in agreement. “I’ve never seen her like this.”

When they got to the funeral home, Steve really didn’t want to go inside, but Nancy took the bag and went, so he felt like he had to follow. They found Jonathan looking at caskets, which honestly made Steve want to cry. When Jonathan saw them, he asked the man showing him around if he could have a moment.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked.

Nancy showed him his backpack and asked, “Can we talk? For a minute?”

Jonathan hesitated, giving Steve a look. 

With a little huff of frustration, Nancy said, “He already told me you guys are back together. This is about Barb. And Will.”

His brows furrowed with confusion, Jonathan said, “O-okay.”

After Nancy showed Jonathan the photo, he sat down on a bench in the hallway. Steve sat next to him, with Nancy on Jonathan's other side as they all looked at it. 

“You and my mom both saw this thing?” he asked Nancy.

She nodded. “I have no idea what it is. We were hoping you could do something with the photo. Make it easier to see or bigger?”

“If I had the negative, I could enlarge this part of the photo,” he said, raising his eyebrows when Nancy pulled the film canisters out of his bag. 

“Is it in one of these?”

Jonathan took them, looking at each before popping one open. He unspooled the film and held it up to the light. “Yeah, this is the right roll.”

“Your mom says to tell you Will is still alive,” Steve said as Jonathan packed the film back into the bag and took it from Nancy. 

“Maybe Barb is still alive too,” Nancy said hopefully. “The cops think she ran away, but they don’t know her.”

Jonathan shook his head. “There’s no way Hopper believes that. He knows she was taken, because we told him.”

“He believes you that much, huh?” Nancy asked, shaking her head and hugging herself. 

Jonathan nodded. “He believed me when I told him Steve’s dad was bad news. He believes me about Barb, too.”

“School darkroom?” Steve asked, noticing the undertaker hovering nearby, waiting.

Jonathan must have noticed him too, because he stood up and went over to the man. They talked for a minute before Jonathan came back, scooping up his bag and placing it on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”


	3. Chapter 3

Steve sat in the darkroom with his boyfriend and his ex-girlfriend, listening to them talk about photography. He zoned out a bit, resting his head back against the wall and dozing off. There hadn’t been enough time for sleeping since Will went missing. He woke up a little when Nancy said, “That’s it. That’s what I saw!”

"Jesus, was it out there with us the whole time?" Jonathan said.

Steve stood up and went over to the workbench, standing next to Jonathan and looking at the figure in the photograph. "That's freaky. And your mom saw it come out of the wall?"

Jonathan nodded. "That's what she said."

"God, I don't want you going back there," Steve whispered, putting his hand around Jonathan's waist and laying his head on Jonathan's shoulder. "What if it shows up while you're sleeping?"

Jonathan shivered. "I don't think I'll be _able_ to sleep."

"Come stay at my house," Steve said. "I'll ask my aunt."

Nancy cleared her throat and asked, "Does she know that you…?"

"No one knows," Steve told her.

"Well," Jonathan said, taking the photo out of its bath and clipping it to the line above the workbench to dry. "Hopper and my mom both know."

"Right," Steve said with a nervous little laugh. "Think we should show this to Hopper? He'll believe us."

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, we could do that," he said. "Let's go see if he's at the station."

They escaped the school without being stopped and took Steve's car to the police station. "Hey, Flo," Jonathan said to the woman at the front desk. "Is the Chief here?"

She rolled her eyes. "He's been off doing _something_ all day. I can't get him on the radio. If you see him, would you tell him to call in?"

"Sure," Jonathan told her, turning back to Steve and Nancy with a shrug. "What do we do now?"

"Maybe he's at your house," Steve suggested. "He's there a lot."

So, Steve drove everyone back out of town and toward Jonathan's place. They were halfway there when Jonathan turned in his seat to face Nancy and said to her, "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" she asked, meeting Steve's eyes in the rear view mirror for a second. "What are you sorry for?"

"I didn't mean to…" Jonathan looked over at Steve, who had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he drove. "I didn't mean to steal him back or anything. It just happened."

"Oh, my god," Steve sighed. "Can we _not_ do this right now?"

Ignoring him, Nancy said, "It's okay. I understand."

"Really?" Steve asked.

Nancy glared at him, "What _Jonathan_ did was okay. What you did was not. I just don't have time to be mad at you right now."

"Sorry," Steve said lamely, pulling up to the house. "Do you guys see the hole in the wall, or is it just me?"

"No, I see it," Jonathan said, getting out of the car and jogging toward the house, taking his backpack with him. Steve gave Nancy another apologetic look, and then followed.

When Steve got inside, Jonathan was holding onto his mother, saying, "I know, mom. I _know_. Something took him. Here…" He took the photograph out of his backpack and showed it to Joyce, who had red-rimmed eyes and messy hair.

Steve shivered, looking at the hole in the wall. "It's letting all the warmth out."

"We could cover it?" Nancy suggested. "With a tarp or a thick blanket or something."

Looking over his shoulder at them, Jonathan said, "There should be a tarp and some nails in the shed out back." Then he returned to hugging Joyce, calming her down, telling her everything was going to be okay.

Steve didn't know what else to do, so he followed Nancy out back and helped her find the tarp and a hammer and some nails. When they brought these back into the house, Steve stopped short. "I know that voice," he told Nancy.

He hurried through the house, and found Lonnie in the living room with Jonathan and Joyce. "...didn't even finish planning the funeral? It's supposed to be tomorrow!"

"He's not dead," Joyce insisted. "Something took him and he's trying to find his way back home!"

Lonnie spotted Steve and pointed to him, saying to Joyce, "And you let this kid hang around? Do you know what he's trying to turn our son into? A-plus parenting, Joyce. You've got it all under control."

Before Steve could deny it or Joyce could yell at him, or anything, Nancy stepped closer to Lonnie and said in a cold voice, "You need to leave."

Lonnie blinked at her for a moment before saying, "I can't believe this! You've drawn all these kids into your sick delusion, Joyce! Listen to me,” he said, grabbing Nancy by the arms and shaking her a little. “Will is d–”

That was as far as he got before Jonathan threw a quick jab, hitting the side of Lonnie's face with his fist. Nancy twisted her arms the rest of the way out of Lonnie’s grasp as he staggered at the blow. 

Jonathan put himself between Lonnie and Nancy, his fists up just the way Georgie taught him. Steve moved closer to the fight, trying to keep an eye on both of them at the same time, trying to make sure Lonnie didn’t hurt anyone else.

“What the f–” Lonnie started to say, but Jonathan cut him off. 

“You heard the lady. You need to leave.”

Lonnie stood up, quite a bit taller than Jonathan, and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. “Is that what you want, Joyce? You want me to _leave_?”

“Get out of here, Lonnie,” Joyce said, stepping in front of Jonathan and giving Lonnie a shove. “We don’t need you here, and we don’t want you here. Goodbye.”

Lonnie scoffed, “Fine. Fine. Have fun here in your little loony bin. I’ll be in the real world, throwing a funeral for our _dead son_!” 

He left, and even though there was a hole in the wall big enough to climb through, Steve gave into the urge to lock the door behind him.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked Nancy while Steve was locking the door. “Did he hurt you?”

Steve recognized the tenderness in Jonathan’s voice. It reminded him of when Jonathan found him in the fort out in the woods, arm broken because of a man not unlike Lonnie.

Nancy shook her head. “No, no,” she insisted. “I’m fine.” Her gaze shifted over to the hole in the wall. “We were going to fix that.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, picking up the things they’d brought inside. He pulled a chair close to the wall and stood on it, hammering a nail near the ceiling on the left side of the hole. “Let’s get the tarp up and see where the other nail has to go.”

“Okay,” Nancy said, unfolding the tarp and handing him one of the corners. 

Steve watched Jonathan at the far side of the room, holding Joyce and speaking to her quietly. Then he put the eyelet of the tarp onto the first nail, and climbed down from the chair. Moving it over to the other side of the hole, Steve pulled the tarp tight, and then asked Nancy, “Another nail?”

Her eyes a little shiny, but her jaw set and determined, Nancy nodded, handing him first the nail, and then the hammer. 

Climbing down again, he asked Nancy, “What do you think? Weigh down the bottom so it stays tight against the wall?

Uncharacteristically quiet, Nancy nodded again. Then she said, “Wait, I saw something.” 

She went to the back porch and returned with a half cinder block. Steve pulled the tarp as tight as he thought the nails holding it up could stand, and Nancy placed the cinderblock on the floor, directly under the center of the hole. 

“That will do for now,” Nancy said, turning to Steve. She looked like she was going to say something, but then there was a knock at the door.

Joyce patted Jonathan’s arm and went to the door, calling through it, “We’re done, Lonnie! Just go!”

“It’s me,” said a different voice, and Steve recognized it was Hopper. 

Frowning, Joyce unlocked and opened the door. “What, Hopper?” she asked with a sigh. “What is it?”

Hopper looked around at the others, before saying to Joyce in the most serious tone Steve had ever heard from him, including the night Hopper drove him home from the hospital, “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

Joyce looked at him for a long moment before nodding, and leading him back to her room. That left Steve standing in the living room with Jonathan and Nancy, really very unsure where anyone stood on anything of importance. 

Jonathan was the first one to move. He sat down in the middle of the couch with a loud sigh. For lack of anything better to do, Steve went over and sat next to him. All the rest of the living room seats were either turned over or piled with strings of Christmas lights. Nancy ended up sitting down on Jonathan’s other side. 

“I’m sorry, again,” Jonathan said quietly. “Lonnie shouldn’t have grabbed you like that.”

“I’m okay,” Nancy assured him, putting her hand on Jonathan’s arm. With an amused little smile, she asked Jonathan, “Where did you learn how to punch like that?”

With a harsh breath that was almost a laugh, Jonathan told her, “Hopper’s been making me and Steve take boxing lessons.”

“You both?” Nancy asked, looking across Jonathan at Steve. 

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Since when? How come I didn’t know about this?” Nancy asked.

Steve gave her a shrug. “Since summer. He kinda…” Sharing a look with Jonathan, Steve tried to gauge how much was too much when it came to divulging information about their relationship to Nancy.

Jonathan looked back at him and raised an eyebrow before, still looking at Steve, he said, “Hopper caught us parking.”

Nancy’s mouth shrank into a confused moue. “Parking? As in…?”

“Making out,” Steve told her.

When Nancy looked to Jonathan for confirmation, he nodded guiltily. "That's when Hop decided I needed to learn how to defend myself."

"Well, it came in handy today," Nancy said, squeezing Jonathan's arm and giving him a smile. "Thank you."

Jonathan nodded and blushed. "You're welcome."

Before Steve could ask whether Jonathan's crush was maybe not as in the past as he assumed, Joyce and Hopper came back into the living room. "There's a picture?" Hopper asked, holding out his hand. "A picture of this thing, you have it?"

"Y-yeah," Jonathan said, picking up the picture and showing it to Hopper. "That's it."

"I saw it," Nancy added. "Out in the woods."

Hopper looked at the photo intently, pressing his lips together tightly. "The body they pulled out of the quarry is fake," he said. "It's a damn good fake, too. I had to actually cut it open and find the stuffing to be able to tell it was fake."

"What does that mean?" Jonathan asked, his expression distraught. "Who would do that?"

"Someone with a lot of power," Hopper told them. "Someone with a lot to lose if it comes out that their mistake hurt a kid."

"What sort of mistake?" Nancy asked him.

"I don't know," he said, handing Jonathan back the photograph. "But it has something to do with that _thing_ and something to do with Hawkins Lab."

"Hawkins Lab?" Steve asked. "What's that?"

"It's supposed to be some Department of Energy facility," Nancy said, looking to Hopper for confirmation.

Hopper nodded. "I'm guessing it's actually CIA, or DOD. Whatever it is, I'm going to find out." He pointed at Jonathan. "Take care of your mother." Next he pointed at Steve, "You take her home," and gestured to Nancy. "All of you have to act like you don't know anything about this mess. Go to the funeral tomorrow. Be sad. Don't let anyone know. Your lives might depend on it."

Steve could feel his heartbeat whooshing quickly in his ears. His _life_ might depend on keeping this a secret? If this was coming from anyone but Hopper, Steve might have thought it was a joke. But Hopper? He wouldn't joke about something like this. Steve trusted him to tell the truth, even if it was a hard truth.

Pushing his hands back through his hair, Steve sighed and nodded. "Okay, Hop. Okay."

~*~

“It’s getting kind of late,” Steve said as he and Nancy drove away from the Byers house. “Are your parents going to get upset?”

“Probably,” Nancy said with a sigh. “Maybe if I go in the basement door, they won’t notice.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Steve said. They drove in silence for a long few moments before Steve got the courage to say, “I do really like you, Nance. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to treat you the way you deserve.”

“It’s okay,” Nancy sighed. “It’s not your fault you’re gay.”

Shaking his head, Steve said, “That’s the thing, though. I’m _not_ gay. It’s this other thing. Jonathan says it’s called bisexual.” He scoffed a little. “Means some of the people I like are girls, and some are guys. So, I _do_ like you like that, but I’m just a cheating asshole, I guess.”

“I guess... that’s Jonathan’s problem now,” she told him, arching an eyebrow at him. The twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth told Steve it was okay to laugh.

Carefully, Steve asked, “Do you think, after this is all over and we get Will and Barb back, maybe we could be friends?”

“Maybe,” she said with an earnest nod. “That might be nice.” She looked at him for a minute, before asking, “So, Tommy and Carol… do they know about Jonathan?”

“I mean, they give me enough shit for being friends with him. If they found out I love him…” Steve shook his head. “I’d become a total social outcast in, like, two seconds.”

“You love him?” Nancy asked, and it was more curious than hurt.

Steve nodded. “Yeah. More than I probably should.”

Nancy nodded like she was making a decision. “You and I should pretend we’re still dating.”

“Why?” Steve asked her. 

“So no one will suspect you’re gay – excuse me – _bisexual_. They’ll think you’re normal,” she said, smiling like she’d just had the best idea.

“Uh-huh,” Steve said skeptically. “And you’d just do this out of the goodness of your heart?”

“Of course not,” Nancy said. “I would get the social status that comes with dating an older, good-looking boy.”

Steve laughed and shook his head. “Come on. What does Nancy Wheeler care about social status? You're better than all that popularity bullshit.”

“I might be,” she said in agreement. “But, all the best extracurriculars, like student government, have a popularity component. I’m not getting into Harvard, or Yale, or Purdue, on just good grades and notes from my teachers about how I was ‘a pleasure to have in class.’”

Steve gave her a few glances as he turned onto her street. “Have you been using me this whole time?”

“No, of course not,” Nancy said, and Steve wasn’t quite sure he believed her. “Though I _was_ hoping you’d help me get rid of this stupid virginity before I went to college, but I suppose there’s still time to find someone else to do that.”

Steve choked a little on his tongue and had to cough a few times to clear his throat. “Yeah, there’s definitely still time for you. I mean, it’s not like _I’ve_ ever done it either.”

He pulled his car to the end of the cul-de-sac and put it in park.

“You and Jonathan never…?”

Steve shook his head. “He’s younger than me, isn’t ready yet.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Nancy said, looking out at her house. “So, the funeral tomorrow. I’ll meet you at the cemetery? We can stand together. Practice acting like a couple.”

“Sure,” Steve said, knowing he was going to have to clear that with Jonathan first. “See you tomorrow.”

~*~

“This looks appropriate for a funeral, doesn’t it?” Steve asked his Aunt Lily, holding out his arms to show off his clothes. His suit was dark gray, rather than black, but his tie and shoes were black, as was his dress coat. “The pants are a little short.”

“When was this suit fitted to you?” Lily asked, pulling down the sleeves and buttoning the jacket.

“Last spring,” Steve told her. “For Esther’s wedding.”

Lily sighed and looked him over again. “Well, it’ll do for today. If you grow just half an inch more, we’ll have to get you a new one.”

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “I don’t plan on attending any other funerals anytime soon.”

Lily gave a soft laugh. Looking up at him, she asked, “Are you going to be okay going by yourself? Do you want me to come with?”

Steve tried to act like Will was actually dead, like he wasn’t just going through with it to keep up appearances. “I’ll– I’ll be okay, Aunt Lily. Thanks.”

Nodding and squeezing his shoulders, she asked, “When do you think you’ll be home?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I might sleep over at Jonathan’s. Help out, you know?”

Lily nodded. “Okay. Try to call before nine, so I know whether to wait up for you.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “I should go.”

“Okay.”

Steve went to the Byers house, hoping to check in with Jonathan before they were out in public at the funeral. Except, when Steve got there, no one was there. Shit. They must have already left for the funeral. 

Steve drove over to the cemetery and managed to find Jonathan’s car parked next to the cemetery office. It was kind of sunny, for it almost being winter, so Steve leaned against Jonathan’s car and waited. He kind of wished he had a cigarette, just for something to do while he sat here waiting.

Eventually, Jonathan and Joyce came out of the office, both of them looking pissed off. When Lonnie followed them out, Steve understood. He nodded to Jonathan, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jonathan said in reply, walking past Steve. He didn’t go toward the grave site that was starting to gather mourners, but randomly out into the cemetery. 

Steve followed him, jogging to catch up. “I have to tell you something,” he said, catching Jonathan’s arm.

Jonathan sighed, but he slowed down. “What?”

“Nancy offered to pretend she’s still my girlfriend,” Steve explained. “I wanted to make sure that’s okay with you.”

“Pretend she’s your girlfriend?” Jonathan asked. “Why?”

Steve told him, “So you and I can be together and we don’t have to be so scared.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said, furrowing his brow. “I–I guess that would be okay.”

Steve let out the breath he’d been holding. “Okay.”

“But–“ Jonathan cut himself off and looked away. 

“What?” Steve asked, trying to get Jonathan to look at him. “Babe, what is it?”

“Don’t kiss her,” Jonathan said, still not looking at Steve.

“I won’t,” Steve said, moving around Jonathan until he _had_ to look Steve in the eye. “I won’t kiss her. Hell, I won’t do this at all if it bothers you. I’m _yours,_ Jonathan. I love _you_.”

“No, you should do it,” Jonathan told him, looking around before reaching over and squeezing Steve’s hand. “After all, Georgie says you still suck at boxing.”

Steve laughed, covering his mouth when he realized where they were standing. “I’m gonna switch days,” Steve said, taking half a step closer. “So we’re going on the same day again. We could work out. Come home all sweaty. Make out in the shower at my place…”

A brief smile flashed across Jonathan’s face before he looked away and it vanished again. “I can’t think about that now.”

“Yeah, having a boner at your brother’s funeral would be pretty difficult to explain,” Steve said, laughing when Jonathan punched him in the arm.

“I should get over there,” Jonathan said. “Remember, Hop said we can’t let anyone know we know the body’s fake.”

Steve nodded. “I’ll go find Nancy.”

“We’ll talk after,” Jonathan promised. He swayed away from Steve and then back again, like he couldn’t make himself leave.

“Is this you not wanting to go over there?” Steve asked him. Then Steve smirked. “Or you not wanting to leave my glorious presence?”

Jonathan gave a soft laugh and tore himself away, following the direction his parents had gone in. Steve went the long way around, ending up over where most of the people were parking their cars. He saw the Wheeler station wagon pull up, so he went over and offered Nancy his arm for the walk toward the grave site. 

“Hey.”

“Hi,” she said, taking his arm and holding him back as they walked. When her parents and brother were far enough ahead, she whispered, “I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“My brother and his friends found a girl in the woods,” Nancy told him. "I found them hiding her in the basement last night."

“A girl? Not Barb, I’m assuming,” Steve asked, holding Nancy steady as they headed off of the paved walkway and over the cemetery lawn.

“No. She looks like she’s ten or eleven,” Nancy said. “She thinks she can find Will. I want to bring her to Jonathan’s house after the funeral.”

Steve stopped Nancy and whispered, “Wait. Hang on. What do you mean, she can find Will? Has she seen him?”

Shaking her head with wide eyes, Nancy whispered, “No. She’s psychic or something. It’s–it’s incredible. The things she can do.”

Steve looked up in time to see Mike hurrying toward them. He kept his voice low as he said, “Jesus Christ, Nancy! You can’t tell your stupid boyfriend! There are bad men after her.”

“After who?” Steve asked, giving Nancy a side-long look and squeezing her hand so she would know he was playing dumb. “Tell me what? What are you talking about, Wheeler?”

Mike gave him and Nancy a very confused look, scoffed and shook his head, and then turned and caught up with his parents.

“You’re a better actor than I realized,” Nancy told him.

“Thanks,” Steve said. “I think.”

Another word for “actor” might have been “liar.” Steve had some practice with that. He had some practice passing Jonathan in the hallways at school and pretending he had no idea what his lips tasted like. He had some practice hanging out with Tommy and Carol, lying to them about where he’d been and who he’d been with. He even had practice lying to Nancy, telling her he was fine and happy, when really he hadn’t been.

So, yeah. Actor. Liar. Same difference. 

~*~

The funeral was rough. Steve tried to forget about the fact that Will might still be alive. He tried to forget about the fact that the body in the casket was fake. He thought about how devastated Jonathan and his mother had been when Hopper brought them the news. He wished he would have let Aunt Lily stuff tissues into his coat pocket like she’d wanted to. 

Nancy’s brother and the rest of Will’s friends didn’t do a very good job of acting like Will was dead. They whispered to each other and smiled, and Jesus, they were bad at this. He hoped like hell that none of them were going to turn out queer, because like hell would any of them be able to hide it for more than five minutes.

Steve did his best not to watch Jonathan during the service. He put his arm around Nancy and ignored the suspicious look Hopper gave him across the open grave. When the service was over, Nancy took Steve’s hand and joined the line of people giving their well-wishes to Jonathan’s family. 

When they got to the front of the line, both he and Nancy ignored Lonnie. Then, while Steve gave Joyce a quick hug, Nancy hugged Jonathan and whispered something to him. Jonathan nodded. 

Steve couldn’t step past Jonathan without hugging him, not when he had the perfect excuse to do so. He hugged Jonathan, and whispered, “Love you, babe,” against his ear.

When Steve pulled back, Jonathan was blushing as he nodded. “Thanks for coming, Steve.”

“You’re welcome.”

The reception after the funeral was depressing, but he, Nancy, and Jonathan managed to wrangle themselves a corner of the room where they could talk more-or-less privately. 

“So, you think she can find Will?” Jonathan asked Nancy after they told him about the psychic girl. 

Nodding, Nancy replied, “And Barb, too. Mike says he heard Will singing over the radio, that somehow this girl channeled him or something. I don’t know.”

“Where are we going to bring her?” Steve asked. “Didn’t your brother say there were bad men after her?”

“I was thinking…” Nancy said, looking over at Jonathan. “Your house. Since your parents know about the monster and everything already.”

“Lonnie doesn’t know,” Jonathan said, frowning at her. 

“Sorry,” she said with a careful smile. “I meant your mom and Chief Hopper.”

“Oh.” Jonathan looked pensive for a moment before he said, “Okay. Bring the girl over to my house tonight.”

“I–” she said, looking at Steve. “I don’t have my license yet. Or a car.”

Steve told her, “I’ll come pick you up. Meet you guys at the end of the block, at what? Eight?”

Nancy nodded. “Sure.”

“What about the monster?” Jonathan asked them. “What if it comes back? What if it takes someone else?”

“It took Will and it took Barb,” Nancy told him. “We have to find it, and kill it.”

“One thing at a time,” Steve told them. “First we have to see if Mike is right and this girl _can_ find Will and Barb.”

Nancy nodded. “Eight o’clock.”

~*~

After Steve went home, changed into regular clothes that actually fit, and ate dinner with his aunt, he told her, “I’m going out with Nancy tonight. Movies. You know, try to take our minds off everything.”

Lily nodded. “Okay. You’ll stay out of the woods, won’t you?”

“Definitely,” Steve agreed, thinking of the picture Jonathan had shot of the monster standing fifteen feet away from them in the woods and none of them noticing it. 

“And you’ll call if you’re not going to be home by midnight?”

“I’ll call,” Steve promised. 

“Okay,” Lily said, standing up from the table. She came over to him and pulled him into a sideways sort of hug. “I’m sorry your friend’s brother passed. You’ll let me know if you need anything?”

Steve nodded.

As Lily pulled back, she added, “One of the social workers gave me the name of a counselor. Sometimes kids who…” She sighed. “Well, kids with parents like your dad – sometimes they need to talk to someone. You seemed like you were doing well back then. Even with the trial. But with this too?” She put her hand on Steve’s shoulder and squeezed. “You let me know if it gets to be too much.”

“I will,” Steve promised her, knowing that he wouldn’t. “I’ll let you know.”

Steve put on his jacket and shoes and got in his car. He drove over to Nancy’s neighborhood, and when he pulled over to the side of the street, Nancy hopped into the front seat. Four kids got into the back, including the girl, whose hair was buzzed short.

Nancy said, “Let’s go,” so Steve made a U-turn and headed back toward the main road, and then Jonathan’s house. 

“You’re sure we can trust Hopper?” Mike asked Nancy, squashed in the back seat between the girl and the kid with the curly hair.

“I’m sure,” Nancy told him. “He’s the one who found out that body was a fake. He’s the one who told us not to let on that we knew. He _knows_ about this kind of stuff.”

“It’s definitely a risk,” said the kid wearing the camouflage bandanna. 

“Lucas! Do you want to get Will back, or not?” Mike asked him. 

“Of course I want to get Will back!” Lucas replied. “I’m just saying, it’s a risk!”

“Enough!” the curly-haired kid said. “We’re doing this. End of story. So stop fighting!” Oddly enough, that worked, and Steve started to think maybe the curly-haired kid was alright. 

It didn’t take too long to get to Jonathan’s house, where Steve barely knocked before opening the door and calling out, “Hey, we’re here!”

Joyce and Hopper were sitting across from one another at the kitchen table, and as Steve let Will’s friends and Nancy into the house, they stood up. Jonathan came out of his room, and then they were all standing there in the house looking at each other. 

“Okay,” Steve said. Looking around at everyone. “What do we do first?”

Mike took a radio out of his backpack and gave it to the girl. "Here," he said. "Show them what you showed me."

The girl didn't say anything, but she nodded earnestly and sat down at the kitchen table. She turned on the radio, tuning it to static. She closed her eyes, keeping her hands on the radio, and everyone went silent. 

The light above the kitchen table flickered. 

Then Steve heard it – the sound of someone small breathing. Shivering. 

Jonathan clasped Steve’s hand, holding tightly and staring at the radio in the girl’s hands. 

Across the kitchen, Joyce said, “Will, baby? Is that you?”

At the shaky reply of, “Mom?” Steve noticed everyone except the girl flinch in surprise. Jonathan took a step closer to the table, still holding Steve’s hand just as tightly.

“Oh, Will!” Joyce cried out, moving closer to the radio as well. “Baby, I’m here! I’m here! I can hear you!”

“Mom, I’m scared!”

“I know, you are,” Joyce said, tearing up. Hopper put his hand on her shoulder, and right away she covered it with her own. “Can you tell me where you are?”

“It’s our house,” he said, “but it’s wrong. Everything is cold and dark. The air _hurts_.”

The curly-haired kid whispered, “The Vale of Shadows…”

“We’re going to figure out how to get you out of there,” Joyce said. “Just hold on, baby! We’re coming for you.”

“Be careful,” Will replied, coughing a few times. “There’s something over here. Something dangerous. It's _hunting_ me.”

“We know. We know. We’ll get to you soon. I love you, Will,” Joyce told him, turning away from the radio and pressing her face to Hopper’s chest. Her shoulders shook with sobs and Hopper held her tight. 

“Love you, too, Mom.”

The radio returned to playing static and Steve saw the girl wipe a trickle of blood from below her nose. Gross. 

“Eleven, what about Barb?” Nancy asked, and Steve managed to parse out that Nancy used a number instead of the girl’s name. Unless her name _was_ a number. 

Freaky. 

“Can you find Barb?” Nancy asked again. 

Eleven – or whatever her name was – nodded. She closed her eyes again, furrowing her brow. 

It took longer this time before the static faded, and when it did, the noise that took over was difficult to listen to. Ragged, wet breathing filled the air. 

Nancy covered her mouth, a small, surprised noise escaping her. Then she got closer to the radio and said, “Barb? Barb, can you hear me?”

The wet breathing noise continued, unchanged. 

“What’s wrong?” Nancy asked Eleven. “Can you see her? What’s wrong with her?”

“Bad,” Eleven said, opening her eyes and shaking her head. “Bad!”

“What’s bad?” Nancy asked. “Is it Barb? Is she still alive?”

Eleven looked at Nancy and nodded solemnly. “Not long.”

“Until what?” Hopper asked, drawing Eleven’s attention. “Not long until she’s dead?”

Eleven nodded. 

“Right,” said Mike, like he was in charge. “We have to figure out how to get there. Mr. Clarke said there would–"

"Mr. Clarke?" Steve asked. "The science teacher? How would he know about this?"

"He's a smart man," Mike said adamantly.

"Yeah," said the curly-haired boy. "He knows about all sorts of stuff. And he said to get to another dimension, there would have to be some sort of gate."

"A gate?" asked Hopper, looking around at the kids, who all nodded. "Like a door I could go through? Where is it?"

Eleven shook her head. "No, no, no."

"Yes, yes," said Hopper. Frowning he asked, "It's at that lab, isn't it? The one you escaped from."

Steve hadn't heard this part of the story before. "What? What lab?"

Eleven looked at Hopper with watery eyes. "No. Bad men." She put her fingers up to her temple and mimed being shot. 

Steve shivered. 

"Yeah, I'm kind of used to that," Hopper grumbled, heading for the door.

Joyce called after him, "Hop, wait!" Then she grabbed both Jonathan and Steve, each by the arm. "Get these kids home safe, and look after each other, alright?"

"Mom?" Jonathan asked, clutching her elbow. "What are you–? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get your brother back," she said, giving Jonathan a look before hugging him and leaving.

"Mom!" Jonathan called after her, but she left, following Hopper out the door.

"She's…" Jonathan said, giving Steve a devastated look. Steve pulled him into the hug he knew Jonathan needed. 

"It's gonna be okay," Steve told him, rubbing Jonathan's back. "It'll be okay."

~*~

After bringing Nancy and the kids back to the Wheelers' house, Steve went back to Jonathan's house. He let himself in and locked the door behind him. Picking up the kitchen phone, he called and checked in with his aunt, and then he made his way to Jonathan's bedroom door. He knocked, but there was no answer, so he assumed Jonathan was asleep. 

However, when he opened the door, the light was still on and Jonathan was sitting on the edge of his bed, his headphones on his ears.

"Hey," Steve said, going around to where Jonathan would be able to see him. 

Slipping his headphones off, Jonathan reached for Steve. Steve went to him, wrapping his arms around Jonathan and holding him close.

"What if neither one of them comes back?" Jonathan asked, burying his face in Steve's shoulder. "What if they both get stuck in that…in that other _place_? I'll be all alone."

"No, you won't," Steve insisted. "You'll have me."

"What if they make me go live with my dad?" Jonathan took a sharp breath and clutched Steve tighter. "What if he doesn't let me see you?"

Steve caught Jonathan's face in his hands, meeting his eyes. "If that happens, I'll come get you and we'll run away together."

Jonathan scoffed. "Be serious, for once, Steve. I–"

"I am being serious," Steve told him. "If they don't come back and you have to go, I'm going with you. Anywhere, as long as I can be with you."

Jonathan met Steve's eyes for a long moment, and then pulled him into a desperate kiss. Steve kissed him back, trying to make Jonathan believe he meant it when he said he'd leave everything behind. If he got to have Jonathan, then nothing else mattered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: anti-gay slurs, canon-like use of knives, blood

When Steve woke up, it was to loud knocking at the door. Steve was alone in bed, so he pulled on his pants and went to the front door. When he opened it, Nancy was there, a stack of books in her arms.

"What's going on?" he asked as she shouldered her way past him and into the living room. 

She set down the books on the coffee table, shoving aside some of the Christmas lights Joyce had left there. Then she looked up at Steve and asked, "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

"Give me a break," he said, shaking his head and noticing that the bathroom door was closed. "It's Saturday and I just woke up."

Nancy gave Steve an odd look, which he rolled his eyes at and left the room. He knocked on the bathroom door, asking, "Jonathan? You okay?"

The shower water turned off and Jonathan said, "What?"

"Nancy's here."

"She's here?" Jonathan asked, before saying, "Shit. I need some clothes." 

Chuckling a little, Steve said, "I'll bring you some."

He went to Jonathan's room, got himself one of the shirts out of the dresser, and then picked out some clothes for Jonathan. When he brought them to the bathroom door, he knocked and said, "Babe, it's me."

The door opened and Jonathan looked around it, his hair wet and stuck to his head and face. The sight made Steve grin. He tried to peek around the door, but Jonathan frowned at him, taking the clothes out of Steve's hand, and then closing the door again. Steve laughed and went back to the living room, where Nancy had spread out her books and was writing something in a notebook. 

"What is all this?" Steve asked, sitting down next to her. The book closest to him was open to a picture of sharks. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Frowning at Steve again, Nancy asked, "Did you sleep here last night?"

"Yeah. I wasn't gonna let him sleep here by himself," Steve told her, gesturing toward the bathroom in the hallway. "Why?"

"No reason," Nancy said, shaking her head. "I was… I didn't sleep much. I just kept thinking about that _thing_ that was out in the woods with us."

"The monster with no face?"

Nancy nodded. "Last night, Will said something about it hunting him. That means it's a predator, right?"

Shaking his head and throwing up his hands – because what did he know about biology? – Steve said, "Yeah, I guess."

The bathroom door opened and Jonathan came out into the living room, his hair still damp and his feet bare. "A predator?" he asked, sitting close on Steve's other side. "Like the other night in the woods. It waited for Barb to break off from the rest of the group."

"Exactly," Nancy said, pointing to one of the books, which had a picture of wolves hunting. "But we've only seen one, so I don't think it hunts in packs like a wolf. It's a lone hunter, like a bear, or a shark."

"Sharks can smell blood, like crazy-good," Steve said the only thing he could remember about sharks, before holding up his hand. "Barb was hurt."

"Yes!" Nancy said, picking up the book that had a picture of a shark. "They can detect blood at one part per million. And they can smell it from a quarter mile away."

"You think the monster is drawn to blood?" Jonathan asked her, leaning closer into Steve's space to look at the shark book. Steve leaned back to give him a little room, but put his arm around Jonathan's back, holding onto him and enjoying the smell of his soap.

Nancy sighed. "It's just a theory."

Jonathan looked at her for a long few seconds before saying, "We could test it."

"What do you mean, test it?" Steve asked, looking back and forth between Jonathan and Nancy. "Why would we want this monster anywhere near us?"

"Because," Nancy said sharply, "the Chief and Mrs. Byers are looking for Will and Barb in that other place, and if this thing lives over there…"

"They'll be sitting ducks," Jonathan finished for her. 

Sighing, Steve gave in. "Okay, okay. But say you're right, and we do manage to get it's attention? Then what?"

"We need to kill it," Nancy told them. 

"Okay, great," Steve said. "We'll yell it to death."

Jonathan gave Steve an annoyed look before saying, "We need weapons."

"Or at least a good trap," Nancy said, biting her lip. Then she stood up. "Get your shoes and coats. I have an idea."

Jonathan stood up too, obviously very into going along with Nancy's idea. Steve had half a mind to let them do this stupid plan on their own, but he knew he couldn't just abandon them. He needed to be there to protect their stupid asses from the monster they were intent on baiting. 

~*~

Steve walked around the army surplus store, carrying the shopping basket as Nancy and Jonathan put a random collection of things into it. "Okay, but here's an idea," he said as Jonathan put a handful of exceptionally large nails into the basket. "Why not get a gun? You know, some real fire power?"

"You have to be an adult to buy a gun," Nancy told him. "So, unless you know where we can get one, we're out of luck."

Steve shrugged. "The cops took my dad's gun when he went to jail, so I guess it was a stupid suggestion."

Looking at Steve, Nancy asked him, "Do you remember what kind of ammo it takes?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter. The cops have it. I bet they destroyed it by now." Steve watched as both Jonathan and Nancy's faces fell. 

"Lonnie has a gun," Jonathan said, but then he sighed. "He's probably back in Indianapolis by now."

"Jesus," Steve said, leaning closer to Jonathan before he whispered, "I thought you were overreacting about your dad killing us if he caught us together. Why didn't you tell me he had a gun?"

Jonathan shrugged. "I don't know. I was freaked out."

"For good reason, apparently."

Jonathan picked up what looked like a trap for something really big. A bear maybe. He wordlessly showed it to Nancy and she nodded. Jonathan put it in the basket Steve was holding, and the sudden extra weight made Steve say, "Oof."

"Okay, I see a lot of stuff here," he said, "but we're still short on weaponry of some sort."

Jonathan picked up a box of nails, opened it and looked at them, and then asked Steve, "You got a bat at home? Like a wooden one?"

"I've got one, but it's metal," Steve told him, thinking about the last time he'd played baseball, back in middle school. "Why?"

"I've got a wooden one, I think," Nancy said. "At home."

Jonathan nodded and put the box of nails in the basket. "We're going to need a fire extinguisher, too."

"Do they sell those here?" Steve asked.

Nancy said, "I'll go ask."

Once she was out of earshot, Steve whispered to Jonathan, "You realize that this is crazy, right?"

"What would you do?" Jonathan asked him, taking the basket from Steve, "if it was your mom and your brother in that other place with this thing?"

Holding up his hands in surrender, Steve assured Jonathan, "Hey, I'm with you, okay? Anything you want to do, crazy or not, I'm with you."

Jonathan nodded and licked his lips. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Then he smiled at Steve, and Steve couldn't help but give him a soft smile in return. 

"Okay, if you two are done making eyes at each other," Nancy said, "I found a fire extinguisher. Let's go."

"I wasn't making eyes," Jonathan muttered, following her.

Steve leaned close to Jonathan and whispered, "I was."

Jonathan gave the smallest breath of a laugh and shook his head. 

After they got everything laid out on the checkout counter, the guy at the register gave them a look and asked, "What are you kids doing with all this?"

Steve looked over at Jonathan and Jonathan looked at Nancy. Nancy shrugged and said in an innocent tone, "Monster hunting."

The guy chuckled and shrugged, ringing them up and putting their purchases in an old cardboard box, which Jonathan took off the counter. The three of them went out to Steve's car, Nancy saying, "We can stop by my house for that bat."

"Let's get the metal one from Steve's place, too," Jonathan said, looking over his shoulder at Steve, who caught up enough to put his hand on Jonathan's shoulder and gave him a friendly squeeze.

Jonathan smiled at him, and then they were at Steve's car. He opened the trunk so Jonathan could put the box inside. As soon as Jonathan closed the trunk, a voice behind them said, "Well, would you look at this?"

Sighing, Steve turned around to face Tommy, who had Carol and Nicole with him. "What the hell, Harrington? Where've you been?"

Shrugging, Steve said, "I don't know. Around."

"I saw him show up at school with Jonathan the other day," Nicole said, giving Steve a mean, if self-satisfied smile.

"Yeah?" Tommy asked, grinning at Steve, Jonathan, and Nancy. "And here we find you with Byers again. What the hell, Steve? Are you a loser now?"

"Yeah, what's up, Steve? Are you and Byers sleeping together?" Carol asked, making a face as she held onto Tommy's arm.

"S-Steve and _I_ are together," Nancy told them, coming over and standing in front of Steve, crossing her arms, jutting out her chin, like she was daring them to say something else.

Tommy gave Steve a long look before letting out a sharp chuckle. "Yeah, right. Sure you are, sweetheart." Shaking his head, he pointed at Steve. "You know, I remember why your old man broke your arm. It wasn't just because he was drunk, was it?"

"C'mon, let's get out of here," Steve said, tugging on Nancy's jacket sleeve to get her to move toward the car. 

"No, it was because of that gay cartoon you drew, wasn't it, buddy?" Tommy said, taking a step closer to Steve. "I always knew you paid too much attention to your looks, Harrington. Getting your hair 'just right?' Wearing clothes like you do? Maybe I could've looked past all that faggy shit. But, really, Steve? Byers? You had to go for the creepy weirdo with the dead brother? Jesus, whatever happened to standards?"

Clamping down on the urge to punch Tommy in his stupid, smug face, Steve tugged on Jonathan's arm. "Let's go."

"Steve, please tell me you're not the one taking it in this little arrangement," Carole said with a laugh. 

"No, I bet he is," Tommy said, stepping closer, almost chest-to-chest with Steve. "Just–just think about it next time your boyfriend is railing you, bud. Look at his face and realize he probably had on the same expression when he was killing his little bro–"

Steve couldn't hold back any longer. He slugged Tommy right in his foul mouth. 

Tommy staggered a few steps away, putting a hand up to his jaw. "Oooh, did I make you mad?" he said, spitting blood and laughing. "I think we're finally getting close to the truth. Byers is a perv and you're his little–"

Steve threw another punch, but Tommy was expecting it and ducked out of the way. He came up swinging and Steve deflected his fist as best he could. It still hit him in the eye, but the pain was a sting he could deal with. 

Steve ducked and gave Tommy's stomach a 1-2 punch, following it up with an uppercut to the bottom of his chin. Tommy staggered back and Steve put his fists back up, ready to defend against whatever bullshit Tommy tried to throw his way next. 

Spitting again, Tommy growled, "You stupid fairy fuck," and tried to hit Steve.. 

Ducking and dancing around Tommy, Steve threw another punch, hitting him in the ribs. Tommy turned, his hands down, leaving his face wide open.

Steve punched him in the mouth again, making Tommy stagger and sit down, grabbing onto Carol when she caught his arm. 

"He's had enough," Nancy said, and Jonathan was at Steve's elbow, pulling on him. 

"Come on!"

"Asshole!" Steve cried out, and he would have kicked Tommy if Jonathan hadn’t forcefully pulled him away. 

“Give me your keys,” Jonathan said, shoving Steve into the back seat of his own car. Steve would’ve complained, but his eye fucking _hurt_ , so he gave Jonathan the keys and let him drive. 

Jonathan drove them the hell out of there, and even though he heard Tommy call out, “Yeah, run away, Harrington!” he didn’t turn around.

After a few minutes, Nancy said, “I can’t believe those assholes!”

Poking at the new bruise next to his eye, Steve said, “That sort of shit is exactly why Hopper put us in boxing lessons.”

“You actually didn’t look too bad out there,” Jonathan said, meeting Steve’s eyes in the rear view mirror for a brief second. 

Steve gave him a little smile. “Thanks.”

Turning in her seat to look at him, Nancy asked, “Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Steve said, poking at the bruise on his eye, then looking down at his hands as they began to ache. "It's a lot different without the gloves on."

Jonathan asked, "Did you break your hand?"

Steve shook out his hands and wiggled all his fingers. "Nah, I don't think so."

"Good."

Sitting back and watching downtown Hawkins fall away as they drove, Steve said, "Well, that was just the warm-up fight, wasn't it?"

Nancy looked over her shoulder and gave Steve a worried look, but when she turned away from him, her jaw was set at a determined angle.

~*~

In the end, they had three bats, two of them wooden with nails pounded through and one lightweight aluminum. "Okay, but why can't we set up the trap outside?" Steve asked as Jonathan pounded the spikes holding the trap into the floor. "You really want to set your mom's house on fire?"

"There's no bottleneck outside," Nancy told Steve, handing him one of the wooden bats. "It could just go around the trap, and then we'd be dead."

Jonathan finished pounding the nail and looked up at Steve. "We've got a fire extinguisher. It'll be fine."

He stood up and went into the kitchen, coming back with two sharp knives, handing one to Nancy. "Ready?"

Nancy held the knife sharp-side down against the palm of her hand, and Jonathan copied her.

"Wait, wait! Stop!" Steve cried, putting hands on each of their shoulders. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"We need blood to lure it," Nancy told him.

"Yeah, I know," Steve said, reaching for the knife and gently taking it out of Nancy's hand. "But if you cut the inside of your hand, how are you gonna swing a fucking bat? Not to mention all the tendons and shit in there."

Looking at Jonathan, who shrugged, Nancy gave a huff. "Well? What do you suggest?"

Thinking about it for a second, Steve nodded to himself and then said, "Front of the shin. Bleeds like a motherfucker, but doesn't keep you from running."

Frowning at him, Nancy asked, "How do you know that?"

Putting his foot on the coffee table, Steve hiked up his pant leg and pointed to the scar on his shin. "Justin York slid into me cleats first the summer after seventh grade. Didn't even realize I was bleeding until Coach called me off the field."

Nancy looked over at Jonathan, who nodded. Biting her lip, Nancy nodded back. "Okay, let's do this."

"On the count of three," Jonathan told her once they were both in place. "One, two, three."

They both hissed in pain and then there was blood dripping onto the floor. 

"How long do we think it's going to take?" Steve asked, keeping his bat close as he grabbed the first aid kit and kneeled down in front of Nancy, ready to wrap her leg when she'd given enough blood. "Should I cut my leg too?"

"One of us should be whole enough to fight it," Nancy said, giving him her leg and nodding.

Steve pressed a folded-up piece of gauze to Nancy's leg, keeping pressure on it for a good thirty seconds before swapping it out for a new one and taping that one in place. She took a few experimental steps, saying, "You were right. It sucks, but I can still move."

"Lemme do yours now," Steve said to Jonathan, going over to him. Taking a new piece of gauze from the first aid kit, Steve pressed it against Jonathan's leg, looking up at him and giving his knee a little kiss, like his mom used to do when he got hurt as a kid. Jonathan smiled, reaching down and brushing his thumb across Steve's cheek. Steve smiled back, then finished dressing the wound. "There you go."

"Thanks," Jonathan said, bending down and pressing a quick kiss to Steve's lips. "Let's get this thing, huh?"

"Let's do it," Steve agreed, taking up the bat. 

~*~

"What if it doesn't come?" Jonathan asked twenty minutes later. "What if it already ate Will?"

"I don't know," Steve said, shaking his head and leaning against the wall. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes to rest them, just for a second.

Nancy whispered, "Guys!" and when Steve opened his eyes, the lights strung up around the living room flickered.

"It's coming," Jonathan said, picking up his bat and getting ready. Steve did the same, putting his back to Jonathan's. 

"Where's it coming from?"

"I don't know!" Nancy said, backing closer to them as the lights around them started flickering more manically. "I don't know!"

A cracking noise drew Steve's attention to the ceiling above the corner of the living room with the hole in the wall. "Look up!" he told the others. "It's coming out of the ceiling!"

Steve watched in horror as the monster dropped down and then _unfurled_ to its full height. Jesus, it had to be at least eight feet tall! 

Jonathan yanked on Steve's arm, yelling, "Come on! Jump over!"

Steve followed him and Nancy, jumping over the bear trap and hurtling himself down the hallway and into Will's room. Jonathan closed the door behind Steve before flicking open his lighter and lighting it. The happy-face yo-yo Jonathan had attached to the bear trap stayed still, not jerking off the chair like it would have if the trap had been triggered.

"What's it doing?" Nancy asked.

Jonathan responded, "I don't know."

When the lights stopped flickering, Steve said, "Shit," and asked the others, "what does that mean?"

Nancy asked, "Do you hear anything?"

Shaking his head, Jonathan flicked his lighter closed and slowly opened the door. When he stepped out into the hallway, Steve followed him. The monster was gone. "Do you think it saw the trap?"

"I don't know, maybe," Nancy said, stepping over it carefully.

Steve stepped over it too, the smell of gasoline thick in his sinuses. "If it's really good at smelling blood, maybe the smell of the gas drove it away."

"Maybe," Jonathan said, eyes still wide as he looked around. "Is it going to come back?"

"Yeah," Nancy said. "It has to, right?"

Steve rolled his shoulders back and let the bat in his hands swing loose near the floor. After all, it didn't hurt to be limber and ready. "Maybe we need to lure it again with more blood."

"If it comes to that," Nancy said with a nod, and she was really turning out to be tougher than he first gave her credit for. Badass, even. 

Steve wandered toward the front door, looking out the window at the dark night beyond. "Joyce and Hopper have been gone a long time. I hope they're okay."

"Yeah, me too," Jonathan said, just as the lights started flashing again.

Steve put up his bat, putting his back to the door and watching the ceiling. The lights around them all flickered, making it hard to see anything, and then they went out. He was so busy squinting at the ceiling that he almost missed the movement in the corner of his eye.

"Jonathan, behind you!" Steve cried, moving forward and swinging at the monster, hitting it just after it knocked Jonathan down, his bat tumbling out of his grip. 

Enraged that the monster might have hurt Jonathan, Steve stepped into another swing, hitting the monster's arm before it could hit him. Nancy got close on his right, picking up Jonathan's bat and swinging it at the monster's shoulder, connecting with a fleshy squelching noise.

Before the monster could turn its attention on her, Steve stepped to the side a bit and hit it again, driving it closer to the trap in the hallway. Nancy swung again, giving it a glancing blow, so Steve stepped up sooner than he’d planned, hitting the monster again and again as Nancy helped Jonathan to his feet. 

Steve hit the monster one last time, and then there was a loud clank and the monster roared in pain.

"He's in the trap!" Steve called out to the others. "He's stuck!"

"Jonathan, light it!" Nancy cried.

Still a little unsteady on his feet, Jonathan stumbled over as he flicked open the lighter and got the flame going. He threw it at the gasoline-soaked carpet at the monster's feet, and the whole hallway went up in flames. The blast of hot air made Steve step back and cover his face.

He could see well enough to see the monster writhing in the flames. 

Jonathan picked up the fire extinguisher, pointing it at the fire. He blasted the fire and smoke filled the hallway. 

Steve coughed, stumbling back even further toward the fresh air. When he was able to look up again, the fire was out and the trap was empty. "Where did it go?"

"No, it has to be dead," Jonathan said, holding his side and frowning down at the trap. "It has to be."

Looking closer at the trap, Nancy said, "There's blood or something here. We hurt it, at least."

"Only hurt it? If a fire like that didn't kill it…?" Steve asked, letting the others fill in the blank. 

Jonathan took a sharp breath and turned around, watching as one, then another strung-up bulb lit and then went dim. The lights traced a path toward them, but they didn't flicker. 

"What is that?" Steve asked as the trail of lights went back the other way, toward the living room. "Is that it?"

"I don't think so," Jonathan said, following the lights.

They led him to the far side of the living room, pausing there for at least a minute or two.

"It's not just me," Steve said, unable to tear his gaze away from the lights. "This is weird, right?"

"Yeah," Nancy said, before Jonathan shushed her.

Steve stood still, trying to hear anything except the wild beating of his heart. 

In the corner of the living room, the tarp over the hole in the wall rustled. It could have just been the wind, except for the lights in that corner were still on. 

The tarp rustled again.

"Is that it?" Steve whispered to the others. "Is it coming back?"

Without responding to Steve, Jonathan dropped his bat and went over to the tarp, ripping it down away from the wall.

In place of the hole in the wall was some sort of alive-looking membrane. It bulged out toward Jonathan and Steve took a breath to warn him.

Before Steve got the words out, Jonathan grasped the bulging membrane with both hands and tore it open, revealing a gloved hand. A human hand.

"Mom!" Jonathan cried, tearing more of the membrane. "What's going on?"

As Steve rushed forward to help, Joyce said, "Here," and then there were smaller arms reaching through the hole. 

Jonathan wrapped his arms around the figure and pulled it through, Steve helping get what he could see now were Will's legs clear of the wall. Looking through the wall, he saw Joyce and Hopper in a strange mirror image of the living room. They were both wearing hazmat suits.

“What the…?”

Joyce grasped Steve’s arm and told him, “We’re going to look for Barb. Take Will to the hospital. Tell them you found him in the woods. Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Steve said, looking back at where Jonathan and Will were clinging to each other. “Watch out for that thing. I think we hurt it.”

“Yeah, we saw the blood,” Hopper told him. “We’ll take it from here.”

“Can I come with you?” Nancy asked, shouldering Steve out of the way. “I want to help find Barb.”

“The air is too toxic,” Hopper told her. “You’ll slow us down, and every minute could be critical. Joyce, let’s go.”

“Be safe, boys,” Joyce said, giving them a wave. “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Bye, Mom,” said Jonathan, and Will gave a weak wave. 

As soon as Joyce turned and walked away from the hole, it started to repair itself, knitting back together like a wound closing up. 

“Here, come here, bud,” Jonathan said, getting Will up into his arms. The boy looked so pale he was almost blue, and his shivers were weak and came in waves. 

Nancy opened the front door and Steve ran ahead of Jonathan and Will, getting the car doors unlocked and opened. Then he ran back and took Will from Jonathan when he staggered. 

“I think I might need stitches,” Jonathan muttered as he followed Steve the rest of the way to the car. 

“Good thing we’re going to the hospital, isn’t it?”

Jonathan sat in the back seat with his arms wrapped around Will, warming him up. Nancy sat in the passenger seat, and Steve started the car. He cranked up the heat and pulled out of the driveway. 

Yeah, they got Will back, which was a giant victory, but Joyce, Hopper, and Barb were still over there. And so was the monster. 

~*~

Steve called his aunt from the hospital, telling her the good news and letting her know he’d be home in the morning. Then he sat with Will while Jonathan was getting stitches and Nancy was getting her leg cleaned out and professionally treated. 

After fifteen minutes of sitting next to Will while he slept, the boy opened his eyes and looked over at Steve. “Hey,” he said to Will. “How are you feeling?”

“Still cold,” Will replied. “Hungry.”

“They said they’ve got to feed you carefully, or you could get worse,” Steve insisted, pushing a cup of apple juice closer to Will. 

Not picking it up, Will looked at Steve and said, “I know Jonathan has been lying about going to visit you. You guys broke up.”

Wondering how the hell Will knew that, Steve shrugged. “We did break up, but we’re back together now.” Steve looked at Will’s face carefully. “Is that okay with you?”

With a shrug, Will said, "Sure, but it's not really up to me, is it?"

Steve chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not."

Will drank some of his juice and then gave Steve a look before saying, "He was really upset for a long time. Kept playing all this sad music really loud."

Smiling at this news, Steve sat back in his chair. "Good to know. Maybe he'll think twice before breaking up with me again."

When Will caught the meaning of Steve's words, he smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, maybe."

Steve sat with Will in a comfortable sort of silence for a few minutes before Nancy came back. Jonathan was a few minutes after her, limping a little as he came in.

"Are you okay?" Will asked him as Steve gave up his seat and made Jonathan sit in it.

"Yeah," Jonathan told him. "It's not that bad. I should feel better in a couple days." Leaning toward Will and putting a hand on his bed, Jonathan asked, "How are you doing?"

"Okay," Will told him. "Worried about Mom."

"Yeah, me too," Jonathan replied.

Steve squeezed Jonathan's shoulder and said, "I'm gonna go find something to eat."

"I'll come with you," Nancy said, giving Will and Jonathan a friendly nod.

As they walked away from the room, Steve asked Nancy, "I'm sure they'll be here soon."

Nancy nodded, biting her lip. "Yeah. If Will was okay, there's a chance Barb is okay, too." She sighed. "Despite what Eleven said."

"Yeah," Steve assured her, spotting a vending machine and leading Nancy toward it. "Let me get you something. The sky's the limit."

He opened his wallet, grimaced and amended his statement. "Four dollars is the limit."

Nancy laughed. "Maybe a candy bar would be good."

"Sure."

As they walked back slowly, giving Jonathan some time alone with his brother, Steve said to Nancy, "It was a crazy day, huh?"

"Yeah," she replied, wrapping her arms around herself. "She's going to be dead by the time they find her. I know it."

"Hey, come here," Steve said, pulling Nancy into a hug and holding her for a good, long moment. "We trapped that monster. We hurt it. I don't think there's anything more we could have done."

"Aside from not taking her out into the woods in the first place," Nancy said, pressing her face to Steve's chest. 

Steve stood there and rubbed her back, saying, "I'm sorry I dragged you into all this, Nancy."

"It's not your fault," she insisted. "I–"

Nancy was cut off when the doors at the end of the hallway crashed open. "Make room!" called one of the doctors, so Steve pulled Nancy to the side, flattening himself up against the wall.

A gurney came through the doors, another doctor and two EMTs with it. Steve couldn't make out who was laid out on it, under all the equipment.

But Nancy must have recognized them, because she cried out, "Barb!" and followed the gurney. Steve followed after for a few steps, before someone behind him called his name.

"Steve!"

Turning around, Steve saw Joyce there, and he couldn't help himself from running to meet her and accepting the hug she gave him.

"How is Will doing? Is he okay?" Joyce asked, letting go of the hug, but keeping her hand on Steve's arm.

Nodding, Steve told her, "Yeah, he's doing well. Come on, I'll show you where he is." Steve brought Joyce to the right hallway, asking her as they hurried along, "Was that really Barb?"

Wide-eyed, Joyce nodded. "Yeah. We had to do CPR. The EMTs still aren't sure she'll make it."

"Shit," Steve said, but then they were at Will's room.

Will was still awake, and he lit up when Joyce came in. "Mom!"

"Oh, Will!" she cried, rushing forward and hugging both her sons. 

Tearing up at the happy sight of the Byers all back together, Steve turned, intending on leaving the room and giving them some privacy. But then Joyce said, "Where are you going, Steve? Get in here!" and waved him over.

With a wet laugh, Steve wiped his eyes and joined the hug between Joyce and Jonathan, feeling a little bit like part of an actual family. 

~*~

After Will fell asleep again, Joyce curled protectively around him, Steve and Jonathan left the room to go find Nancy. They found her in a waiting room with some adults who must have been Barb's parents.

Sitting down next to Nancy, Steve asked her quietly, "How's it going?"

Nancy shrugged. "She's...she's _really_ sick. They think something poisoned her, along with the hypothermia. They're not sure she's going to make it. All we can do is wait."

"Geez, I'm sorry," Steve said, pulling her into a hug. "Is there anything I can do? Call your parents or something?"

Nancy hugged Steve back, and then she stood up and hugged Jonathan too before telling Steve, "I already called the house. No one picked up."

Frowning, Steve shared a look with Jonathan before asking Nancy, "Do you want me to go by there? Make sure everything's okay?"

"I don't know," Nancy said. "It's the middle of the night. Maybe they're just sleeping?"

"We'll go take a look," Jonathan told her, tugging on Steve's arm. "Just in case."

"Thanks." Nancy looked miserable, and Steve wasn't quite sure if this was any better than finding Barb dead.

They walked out to Steve's car, close enough for their arms to brush now and then. After they got into the car, Jonathan asked, "What if it isn't over? What if the monster comes back?"

"I don't know," Steve said, pulling out of the hospital parking lot and heading through downtown toward Nancy's house. "All I know is that I love you."

Jonathan snorted and rolled his eyes. "I love y–" He frowned, looking ahead. "What's that?"

"Looks like a bunch of firetrucks and shit at the school," Steve said, slowing down. "You don't think it could be…?"

"Doesn't hurt to check," Jonathan said. 

Steve pulled into the school lot, parking his car away from the bulk of the fire trucks and ambulances. He and Jonathan got out, walking toward the scene. As they got close, someone called out, "Steve! Jonathan!"

It was one of Mike's friends. The one with the curly hair. He was standing next to an ambulance with one of the other kids, a blanket wrapped around him, one hand in the air, waving.

Jonathan gave Steve a look, which Steve responded to by shrugging, before heading in that direction. Jonathan nodded to the kid, saying, "Dustin," then he said to the other one, "Lucas. What's going on?"

"Did they find Will?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah, they did," Jonathan said, looking around at the other ambulances. "He's at the hospital, but he's going to be okay."

"At least that's some good news," said the other kid, Lucas.

Steve asked them, "What's going on here? What's with all the fire trucks?"

Talking over each other excitedly, Dustin and Lucas told them a story about bad government men coming for El and how they'd fled and tried to hide in the school. The men had found them, but El melted their brains and then there was all this blood everywhere. "And _that's_ when the demogorgon showed up!" Dustin cried.

"The demo-what now?" Steve asked.

"The monster," Jonathan told him. "We wondered where it went after we scared it away from the house."

Sighing, Steve looked around, "What happened to Mike? And the weird girl? Eleven?"

Dustin and Lucas shared a look before Lucas told him, "Mike's okay. He's over there with his parents. But El…?"

Dustin sighed, and there was still a bit of a smile on his face when he said, "She sacrificed herself for us. Obliterated the monster and disappeared."

"Oh, man," Steve said, shaking his head. Looking at Jonathan, he asked, "What do we do now?"

Jonathan shrugged. "I don't know."

"Yeah, me neither."


	5. Epilogue

Steve woke up in his own bed the next morning, but Jonathan was sleeping next to him, all but dead to the world. Steve decided to let him sleep, but left to use the bathroom and search for something to eat. Aunt Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee and watching the little TV in the corner. "Hey, how are you?"

"Fine," he told her, pulling the milk out of the fridge. "I hope it's okay that Jonathan slept over last night."

"Yeah, I saw on the news that they found his brother," she replied, pointing to the TV. "It must be a madhouse over at his house today."

Thinking about the singed carpet and walls, the wrecked furniture, the Christmas lights, the hole in the wall, and the monster blood, Steve nodded. "Yeah. It kind of is."

"Do you know if they found that other girl who was missing?" Lily asked as Steve got the cereal out of the cupboard.

Nodding, Steve told her, "Yeah. They weren't sure she was going to make it through the night, though. She was in rough shape."

"Well, I'll pray for her," Lily said, standing up. "I'm going to church. Do you want to come with me?"

"Uh, no thanks." Between the fucked up shit he'd seen the night before and the church's stance on Steve being the way that he was, he didn't want anything to do with religion. "Besides, I should probably stay with Jonathan so he doesn't wake up here by himself."

Looking a little disappointed, Lily said, "Okay. Your mother's in her room, resting. Leave me a note or something if you go."

"I will," Steve promised.

After finishing his cereal, Steve went back to his room, making sure to lock the door just in case his mom decided for the first time in months to come check on him. He crawled back into bed with Jonathan, wrapping his arms around Jonathan and burying his face in Jonathan's back. Steve breathed him in, feeling calm and content for the first time since they'd broken up over the summer.

Eventually, Jonathan stirred and woke up. He turned over in bed and smiled at Steve. "Hey."

"Hey," Steve replied, pressing a soft kiss to Jonathan's lips. "You probably want to get back to the hospital pretty soon, huh?"

"Pretty soon," Jonathan said with a nod. Then he kissed Steve again and pulled him close. "But maybe not _that_ soon."

Steve grinned and kissed Jonathan back.

~*~

Steve ran into Nancy again at the hospital later that afternoon, while he was on his way to get a couple of sodas for Jonathan and Joyce. "How's Barb doing?" he asked her.

Curling in on herself again and shrugging, Nancy said, "We just don't know yet. Apparently it's a good sign that she's lasted this long."

"Yeah, I'm sure it is," Steve said, giving Nancy the hug she looked like she needed. When he let go, Steve told her, "My Aunt is making me go back to school tomorrow. Do you think you'll still be here?"

"No, I'm sure I'll have to go, too," she said with a sigh.

Thinking about the arrangement Nancy had suggested, Steve asked, "Do you want me to give you a ride to school? I mean, I don't know if you still want to pretend to be my girlfriend, or not. Totally cool if you don't, with everything that's…"

"I'll do it," Nancy told him, giving Steve a sad smile. "After all, I might need a few hugs tomorrow. To get through the day."

Steve chuckled softly and pulled her into another tight hug, holding her close. "It's a deal."

~*~

"You don't have to come with me," Steve said as he and Jonathan stood outside the downtown gym after school on Tuesday afternoon. "I'm sure with your brother coming home from the hospital and everything, Georgie's not going to care if you miss another day."

"What if I don't want to miss another day?" Jonathan asked, leaning a little closer and whispering. "It was kinda hot when you kicked Tommy's ass last week."

Steve smiled, even as he groaned, "Don't say shit like that. You know how difficult it is to hide a boner in gym shorts."

Jonathan laughed and tugged Steve toward the gym by his elbow.

When they showed up in front of Georgie, shoving each other a little and laughing, the man frowned. He reached up and grabbed Steve by the chin, turning Steve's head and tutting at his still-black eye.

"How did you get this?"

Steve told him, "I deflected a punch that would've broken my nose."

Georgie frowned, but nodded. "Did you win?"

"He won," Jonathan told Georgie. "I had to pull him off the other guy."

"Good." Georgie fondly patted Steve's cheek a couple times. "Laps. Ten minutes. Let's go, boys."

Steve grinned over at Jonathan and started running.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's it! The end! Thanks for reading! 
> 
> If you would be so kind, I'd love to know what you thought of this story! 
> 
> You can also find me over [on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) and on [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters).


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